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MARKKO
MARTIN and Michael Park have won the 2003 Rally Finland
in their Ford Focus WRC!
Martin
was involved in an intense battle with Marcus Gronholm throughout
the first and second legs of the event but the Finn was forced
to retire at the finish of stage 14. His Peugeot developed
a front suspension problem mid-way through the stage and the
car lost a front wheel. He reached the end of the test but
with another stage to be completed before service, he was
forced to retire.
Gronholm's
retirement left Martin with a 20 second advantage over Richard
Burns and Robert Reid. Peugeot's hopes of taking a win were
on Burns' shoulders but the Englishman lost more than one
minute with front wheel bearing problems on the final stage
of leg two. This left Martin with an unassailable lead going
into the final day.
With Martin
out in front, all eyes were focused on the battle for second
between Richard Burns and Petter Solberg. Solberg took first
blood to move into second position on the first stage of the
final leg. Burns fought back over the following three stages
to regain second but it was Solberg who came out on top at
the end of the event. Two blistering times over the final
two stages, 1.3 seconds faster on the first and three seconds
faster on the second, allowed the Subaru pilot to finish second.
Burns was third ahead of Citroen's Carlos Sainz and Marc Marti
in fourth, with Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena in fifth.
Tommi Makinen and Kaj Lindstrom completed the top six.
| 1 |
Markko
Martin / Michael Park |
Ford
Focus WRC |
3hrs
21mins 51.7secs |
| 2 |
Petter
Solberg / Phil Mills |
Subaru
Impreza WRC |
3hrs
22mins 50.6secs |
| 3 |
Richard
Burns / Robert Reid |
Peugeot
206 WRC |
3hrs
22mins 51.8secs |
| 4 |
Carlos
Sainz / Marc Marti |
Citroen
Xsara WRC |
3hrs
23mins 50.7secs |
| 5 |
Sebastien
Loeb / Daniel Elena |
Citroen
Xsara WRC |
3hrs
24mins 40.4secs |
| 6 |
Tommi
Makinen / Kaj Lindstrom |
Subaru
Impreza WRC |
3hrs
25mins 16.9secs |
| 7 |
Janne
Tuohino / Jukka Aho |
Ford
Focus WRC |
3hrs
26mins 14.6secs |
| 8 |
Sebastien
Lindholm / Timo Hantunen |
Peugeot
206 WRC |
3hrs
26mins 31.2secs |
| 9 |
Juuso
Pykalisto / Esko Mertsalmi |
Peugeot
206 WRC |
3hrs
28mins 15.1secs |
| 10 |
Freddy
Loix / Sven Smeets |
Hyundai
Accent WRC |
3hrs
30mins 11.6secs |
- Carlos
Sainz hit a rock on stage 18.
- Francois
Duval hit a rock on stage 19.
- The
jack in Ari Vatanen's Peugeot went through the rear
window of his Peugeot on stage 19.
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- Simon
Jean-Joseph retired on stage 11 when he took a wheel
off his car.
- Harri
Rovanpera retired after going off the road on stage
12.
- Toni
Gardemeister retired with engine problems.
- Markko
Martin lost time with electrical problems.
- Marcus
Gronholm lost a wheel on stage 14 and retired after
completing the stage.
- Colin
McRae was given a one minute time penalty for booking
into the time control early. He went on to set fastest
time but rolled out of the event on stage 16.
- Richard
Burns lost time with wheel bearing failure on stage
17.
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- Didier
Auriol pulled out of the event due to problems with
his shoulder.
- Marcus
Gronholm clipped a bridge on stage two.
- Harri
Rovanpera hit a rock and damaged his steering on stage
two.
- Petter
Solberg visited a ditch on stage four.
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