spi-ti-tout
10-02-2005, 04:54 AM
The final leg of WRC Japan opened this morning to watch every single WRC car entered take off, a rare spectacle in itself. Peugeot head driver Marcus Grönholm went to push on from the very beginning and set the fastest stage time of SS22 with winner of Leg 1 and 2 Petter Solberg quick on his tail, before being beaten to victory on SS23 by the +00:01.6 lead that Australian Subaru driver Chris Atkinson, who has not won a stage win since Leg 1 of the rally, created. It was also here that Italian ace Gigi Galli permanently damaged his left-rear suspension and retired rather dissapointedly. Good news was not to come for the Mercus until later however and Mitsubishi's Harri Rovanperä made his mark on SS24 and Finn Grönholm was beaten to 2nd place too by 31 year-old Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb, who had been rising from 6th position in SS22 to 4th in SS23. Marcus knew it was his last chance and pushed the throttle for not only SS25 where STi victor Petter damaged his steering when he met with a 21kg rock, but SS26 aswell and sealed the end of the event for a of the 307 with the noble intention of doing so in the memory of Micheal Park. In the end it was a terrific fight between 5 drivers out there on the home-soil of two WRC Manufacturers and the contestants have now seen where they stand, while the enthusiasts and drivers alike eagerly await the next WRC event.
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