THERE WERE plenty of thrills, a fair share of spills and a lot of retirements yesterday on the longest leg of the Cyprus Rally, round five of the 2002 World Rally Championship, but overnight leader Colin McRae hung on to his lead through an eventful day which almost saw the rally washed away.
Forty-seven of the original 60 starters set out at 6am. After Friday night’s storms, it was damp underfoot and there was a distinct chill in the air but it didn’t deter the handful of fans who turned out to wave the crews off.
The first fifteen cars started in reverse order, so it was Gabriel Pozzo who left the re-start first, though Ford’s Colin McRae was at the top of the leader board, just 6.9 seconds ahead of Marcus Gronholm’s Peugeot.
McRae chose tyres to cope with the mud on the stages after the overnight rain, as did Carlos Sainz, who was a lowly 23rd after a disastrous first day in which he was plagued with problems. The choice was a good one, with Sainz blistering through the first two stages fastest, though power steering troubles cost McRae precious seconds on stage nine and he arrived at the first service a mere 1.9 seconds ahead of Gronholm.
Subaru’s Tommi Makinen was also making headway, and came into the first service in third position, ahead of Ford’s Markko Martin and the Peugeot of Harri Rovanpera. Petter Solberg, in the second Subaru, was determined to make up time lost on the first day and drove like a man possessed, clocking top six times in the morning, and fastest over the three early afternoon stages to move from 16th to 9th by the second service halt.
The ominous clouds which had been threatening all day finally burst as the lead crews tackled the afternoon stages in the mountains and the deluge caused havoc. “I have done many, many rallies and never seen anything like it” was Makinen’s comment, while Solberg likened the muddy conditions to “driving on ice with slick tyres” – but he didn’t let it slow him down.
Stage 12 saw the demise of four top drivers: Hyundai’s Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi’s Alister McRae, and Roman Kresta and Bruno Thiry while several more had problems.
Despite the appalling weather — McRae described stage twelve as “the most treacherous I’ve ever driven” –the Scot had extended his lead to 25.4 seconds by the second service halt. Conditions were so bad in the mountains that stage 14 was cancelled, so the weary crews headed up to Platres for the third time, for the final stage of the day, which proved uneventful.
At the end of the second Leg McRae had a lead of 26.2 seconds over Gronholm, Tommi Makinen was third, 10.3 seconds in front of Richard Burns’ Peugeot, with Harri Rovanpera, in another Peugeot, fifth, despite a roll earlier in the day, and Markko Martin sixth. Solberg’s storming drive put him 8th, behind Kenneth Eriksson’s Skoda, with Armin Schwarz ninth and Manfred Stohl rounding off the top ten.
Today’s final leg takes the surviving crews north-east of Limassol, and finishes at 4.30pm on Limassol seafront.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
