Finland begins a fresh phase for Peugeot.
After three extremely punishing rallies in a row(Cyprus, Acropolis, Safari), Finland marks the beginning of a fresh phase of the 2001 World Rally Championship. The back-end of the season is made up of six events which will see the accent placed on outright speed and in which Peugeot scored a string of top results in 2000. The first of these events is Rally Finland (August 23rd-26th), one of the gravel highlights of the calendar.
After three extremely punishing rallies in a row(Cyprus, Acropolis, Safari), Finland marks the beginning of a fresh phase of the 2001 World Rally Championship. The back-end of the season is made up of six events which will see the accent placed on outright speed and in which Peugeot scored a string of top results in 2000. The first of these events is Rally Finland (August 23rd-26th), one of the gravel highlights of the calendar. Peugeot Sport has entered three cars for Didier Auriol, Marcus Gronholm and Harri Rovanperd, with the latter two nominated as eligible to score Manufacturers' points.
Rallying is one of Finland's biggest sports and all Finns dream of winning their home round. Their local knowledge and motivation are such that only two non-Scandinavians have won in Finland since the World Championship began in 1973. One of which was Didier Auriol, winner in 1992, which makes Peugeot optimistic. "This really is a difficult and stressful event," admits Didier Auriol. "The year I won, there were no restrictions on recce, so we were able to make up for our limited local knowledge by practicing more than usual. Today, the challenge is more difficult." With six rounds still to go in this year's title hunts, Peugeot is currently 4th in the Manufacturers' championship, while two Peugeot Sport drivers figure inside the top ten in the Drivers' standings: Harri Rovanperd (4th) and Didier Auriol (7th).
Peugeot, which has already won two rounds this year (Sweden, Spain), invested in the future when it chose to launch the new 2001-specification 206 WRC in the first of the recent series of rough rallies. The work carried out during these three rounds bore fruit when Harri Rovanperd scored an eloquent second place on the Safari, the longest and toughest event of the year. Following on from that performance, the French team goes to Finland in a particularly determined mood: "Finland will be the first of the series of rallies in which we were very successful last year," underlines Peugeot Sport Director Corrado Provera. "We go into this phase with a second place on the Safari Rally under our belt and that's obviously very encouraging. Our result this weekend in Finland will have a significant bearing on how the rest of the season unfolds for us and we go into it completely focused."
Peugeot Sport will be able to count on the talent and experience of its drivers in its bid to score a top result. "Marcus Gronholm and Harri Rovanperd are perfectly qualified to spearhead our attack," says Jean Pierre Nicolas, manager of Peugeot Sport's rallying department. "Both will be competing on home ground and both will be out to win. Meanwhile, Didier Auriol will be looking to counter our rivals' bid for points. Our colours will also be defended by Sebastian Lindholm who has a good chance of finishing in the points with his privately-entered 206 WRC. Gilles Panizzi will be driving an identical car. Given his limited experience of this highly specific rally, we hope he will be able to perform as well as he did on last year's RAC. But we are aware that the competition is going to be very tough, with perhaps six or seven drivers all in with a realistic chance of victory."
