Makinen: That was MORE than maximum attack!

Tommi Makinen powered his Lancer Evolution to victory today in the closing kilometres of a thrilling Portugal Rally. In doing so, the Finn notched up his 22nd win in 100 World Championship rallies, and Mitsubishi reached a landmark of 25 victories with the Lancer Evolution/Carisma GT.

Today's final leg took the crews to the north for a scheduled three stages, however with the cancellation of the first, Makinen and Ford driver Carlos Sainz had only 34 kilometres in which to rage their duel and seal the outcome.

Weather conditions have been better today, but the roads proved to be drier than Tommi expected and he lost his lead to Sainz when he cut his Michelin tyres too much for the conditions.

With only three-tenths of a second separating the duo as they went in to the final and decisive section, Makinen drove the stage of his life to beat the Spaniard by a clear 8.6 seconds in a monumental showdown.

"It's an incredible feeling," said the Finn. "It's been such a difficult weekend and the last three years in Portugal I've had a bad performance and no results. We've been leading most of the rally, and up until the last stage, and I can tell you that was more than maximum attack! It's really something to win my 100th rally and I can't wait for Spain and the asphalt."

Weather conditions and tyres have been the major talking point on this rally and Makinen and Michelin won the war. Each team has to nominate its two tyre types four weeks in advance of the rally - when predicting weather conditions can be difficult - and, on paper, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart did not look to have the optimum nominations, given this week's conditions.

However, an inspired Makinen sat down with his Michelin technicians at the shakedown and the partners formulated a plan to cut a circumferential groove round the tyres to help directional stability. It undoubtedly helped the Finn establish his lead on the opening leg and set the trend as other teams followed suit.

It took two Michelin tyre cutters no less than one hour to cut each set of Makinen's five tyres for every group of stages, but it was worth the effort!