Nick Koan

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Article by WRC.com
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What was it – the ultimate deciding factor that pushed Citroen’s Carlos Sainz to a record-breaking 26th career victory in Argentina this weekend?

Was it people power, as an estimated million-strong crowd of passionate Latin spectators cheered on ‘El Matador’ as enthusiastically as the Spaniard’s home crowds? Or was it the incentive for Sainz to score one last win before the retirement that he is considering at the end of the year? Or perhaps it was the incentive to clear Colin McRae in the overall winners list and become rallying’s ‘winningest’ driver that spurred on the double world champion?

In actual fact, it was Sainz’s sublime combination of speed and measured skill that kept the 42-year-old veteran on the road and in the running as his rivals fell around him. In conditions that were warmer and drier than expected as Rally Argentina moved slots two months later into the South American winter, Sainz maintained a steady pace over the opening two legs of the rally to be ready and waiting as other top drivers hit trouble.

First to fall was Ford’s Markko Martin on SS5, the Estonian barrel-rolling out of the event at high-speed as his car landed off-line after a sixth-gear yump. On the same stage, the Subaru of reigning world champion Petter Solberg was severely damaged and delayed as it struggled to negotiate a watersplash in an eerie scenario reminiscent of the recent Rally of Turkey. Next time round, as SS9, the watersplash claimed the Norwegian’s scalp for good.

Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm then powered into the lead and, following a brief battle for the position with Sainz at the start of leg two, began to power away from his fellow double world champion into a comfortable leg two lead. It all went wrong, though, just three stages from the end as Gronholm clipped a rock, lost a wheel and retired.

Sainz was then left to run free from Citroen team-mate and current championship leader Sebastien Loeb, who was more concerned with looking after, and extending, his title advantage following the retirement of his closest rivals.

Those retirements offered the World Rally Championship’s young guns a chance to shine. Ford’s Francois Duval steadily lost time to the leaders with a variety of small problems, but held on well to score more manufacturer points for his team with third. Subauru’s Mikko Hirvonen showed pace on his way to fourth, but was always left battling the huge chunks of time he lost at the same watersplash that so terminally affected his team-mate.

Peugeot’s Harri Rovanpera took fifth after losing time with power steering problems, ahead of privateer Luis Perez Companc in the Bozian Racing Peugeot 206 and Gilles Panizzi, who had struggled all rally long (along with quicker, but retired team-mate Kristian Sohlberg) with suspension problems on the works Mitsubishi Lancers.

Such was the rate of attrition that Argentine Group N Subaru driver Gabriel Pozzo took a splendid eighth place overall to bag the last drivers’ championship point, while privateer Ford Focus driver Antony Warmbold and Production WRC class winner Dani Sola completed the overall top 10.

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