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By Petri Karonen (C) 1995. May not be reproduced without author's permission.
Permission is automatically granted for non-commercial use provided that
the author is notified of the reproduction.
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  World Rally Championship Tour de Corse
  
  As the Safari Rally was this year out of the FIA gr. A championship the top
  competitors moved directly from Portugal to Corsica. The Safari Rally was
  a part of the F2 championship but due to the extremely tough conditions in
  Kenya only one of the mere 8 group F2 starters finished the rally. The one
  was rather surprisingly Kenyan Anwar Azan who drove a Korean Daewoo;
  the first international success for both the driver and the marque. The
  Safari itself was won by Yoshio Fujimoto who drove a factory backed gr. A
  Toyota. Second was Kenjiro Shinozuka with the brand new Mitsubishi
  Lancer Evolution III.
  
  Tour de Corse was the real WRC debute for Mitsubishi's new version of
  the Lancer which had been tested excessively in Corsica and naturally the
  team's hopes were high. But it was the RAS Ford Escorts that were
  strongest in the beginning of the rally. Remarkably, from the first special
  stage Belgian Bruno Thiry took the lead; he was leading a WRC rally for
  the first time in his life. 
  
  Francois Delecour followed all through the 8 stages of the first day within
  a few seconds from Thiry, despite almost hitting a herd of cows on the
  road(!). Third was Didier Auriol of Toyota and fourth Andrea Aghini with the
  new Mitsu Lancer Evo III. His team-mate Tommi Makinen, being first time
  in Corsica, wasn't used to the twisty paved mountain roads and even
  touched the cliffs with the back of the car. He was at the end of the day
  12th. Behind Aghini came the Subarus, led by Carlos Sainz (5th). Juha
  Kankkunen was 8th, suffering from steering troubles.
  
  On the second day Thiry continued his nearly ecstatic driving and extended
  the lead over Delecour to 35 seconds. Andrea Aghini dropped to 6th with
  problems and Didier Auriol closed within 2 seconds from Delecour who had
  minor problems with the gears. 4th, 1:21 behind the leader, was Carlos
  Sainz with his team-mate and asphalt specialist Piero Liatti only one
  second behind. World Champion Juha Kankkunen dropped even more as
  he got a one minute penalty for coming late to a time control. The only
  retirement of the top names after two days was Toyota's Armin Schwarz
  who lost the electrics of his Celica.
  
  The last day of Tour de Corse was perhaps the worst day of Bruno Thiry's
  life. It started fine as he was heading for his first WRC win but on the
  penultimate special stage of the rally a front wheel bearing broke and made
  the car undriveable. He was able to limp to the end of the stage but once
  again due to the service regulations the mechanics couldn't do anything to
  fix the problem, so Thiry had no options but to retire.
  
  Thiry's team-mate Francois Delecour was also in trouble; he hit a rock
  bending a steering rod and lost his position to Didier Auriol who thus took
  his 6th win of Tour de Corse. This was very valuable for him as this victory
  put him firmly back to the championship battle. The most stunning drive of
  the day was, however, that of Andrea Aghini's who passed both Piero Liatti
  and Carlos Sainz into a very good 3rd position. 
  
  Subaru drivers Sainz, Colin McRae and Liatti were 4th, 5th and 6th,
  respectively, but they weren't very impressed by the Subaru Imprezas'
  performance on asphalt. 7th was last year's French Rally Champion Patrick
  Bernardini with a Ford and 8th Tommi Makinen of Mitsubishi. Winner of gr.
  F2, Philippe Bugalski with the Renault Clio Maxi, finished 9th ahead of the
  very disappointed Juha Kankkunen who had an off on the last day to top
  up the troubles in his rally.
  
  Because of the rotation system there is going to be a long summer break in
  WRC gr. A as the next race will be in the end of July.

  Results of Tour de Course:
  1. Didier Auriol             Toyota Celica GT Four        5:14:49
  2. Francois Delecour         Ford Escort Cosworth         -0:15
  3. Andrea Aghini             Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III    -0:57
  4. Carlos Sainz              Subaru Impreza               -1:18
  5. Colin McRae               Subaru                       -1:43
  6. Piero Liatti              Subaru                       -2:27
  7. Patrick Bernardini        Ford                         -3:05
  8. Tommi Makinen             Mitsubishi                   -4:50
  9. Philippe Bugalski         Renault Clio Maxi            -5:36
  10. Juha Kankkunen           Toyota                       -10:01
  
  World Championship standing, drivers:
  1. Carlos Sainz          Subaru            50 points
  2. Juha Kankkunen        Toyota            38
  3. Didier Auriol         Toyota            36
  4. Francois Delecour     Ford              30
  5. Tommi Makinen         Mitsubishi        28
  6. Kenneth Eriksson      Mitsubishi        20
     Bruno Thiry           Ford              20
  
  Manufacturers:
  1. Mitsubishi            168 points
  2. Toyota                163
  3. Subaru                145
  4. Ford                  143
  
  Next event: Rally of New Zealand, July 27-30.
  
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   =            Petri Karonen     Email: pakar@tukki.jyu.fi            =
   =   World Rally Championship Infosystem: http://www.jyu.fi/~pakar/  =  
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