10 October 2003 - 18:34 Superb performance by Sebastien Loeb WRC rally Sanremo - Italy

Sebastien Loeb lead the 45th running of the Sanremo Rally from start to finish. A remarkable result by the Citroen driver, who is becoming increasingly closer to Richard Burns in the Drivers' Championship. With two more rallies on asphalt, which is his favourite surface, Sebastien can feel optimistic about his hopes of clinching the Drivers' Championship title.

With big gaps between most drivers in the overall results, everything seemed to be settled after the first two stages of the final leg but rain came in to spice up the show.

Tyres made the difference
After the first round this morning, Sebastien Loeb had a sufficient lead over Markko Martin to manage his race until the end of the rally. The Frenchman gets his fourth WRC career win, his third of the season.

Markko Martin - second overall until the start of the very last stage - was busy trying to stay ahead of Marcus Gronholm. Behind these two drivers, A battle between Carlos Sainz, Gilles Panizzi and Francois Duval was expected... but nothing could prepare the participants to the major changes that were going to happen.

Rain made all the difference, making the last two stages a great finale. Most of the drivers selected slicks for a dry surface but Gilles Panizzi decided to use a different strategy by choosing intermediate tyres for his 206 WRC. A very smart move ! Gilles attacked as hard as he could to catch the drivers ahead of him in the standings.

What seemed like a crazy goal turned out to be a success for Panizzi ! Markko Martin, handicapped by his tyre choice, was not able to win the battle against the Peugeot driver. Second in 1999 and winner of the past three editions, Gilles Panizzi is once again on the podium this year.

Reliable performance by Citroen
Citroen achieve an excellent result in Italy and is now ahead of Peugeot in the Constructors' Championship by four points. The Xsara has been reliable all weekend, each of the four Citroen drivers finish in the top 8.

Carlos Sainz is getting closer to Richard Burns in the championship by finishing fourth today but the Spaniard is now behind his teammate Sebastien Loeb. Colin McRae scores three points by finishing in sixth place while Philippe Bugalski gets his first point of the season with his eighth place finish.

Burns in the points
The rally did not start very well for Richard Burns. The Briton was never able to find the proper rhythm and was far behind his teammates. In all honesty, Richard admitted that he did not feel confident in this event but at least he was able to make a strong finish in the last stage moving to seventh place which is good enough for two points.

Marcus Gronholm did his very best at the wheel of the 206, which is not improving much since the beginning of the season . Peugeot is putting all of their efforts on the new WRC car and the drivers are starting to feel the lack of progress of the 206. Gronholm was in a solid third position when rain came in. The Finn went off the road - for the third time in three rallies - and had to retire.

Peugeot were expecting a lot from Gilles Panizzi because of his reputation on asphalt. However the Frenchman had a frustrating race, realising that the 206 no longer had the potential to battle with the Xsara and the Focus on asphalt. Rain was the element Gilles needed to climb up in the standings after making a bold tyre choice.

Martin unlucky
Markko Martin was without a doubt the only driver to keep up with Loeb's rhythm. The Estonian worked extremely hard to defend his position and took most of the fastest stage times along with Loeb.

Unfortunately Martin received a 30-second penalty at the beginning of the second leg. From that moment, it became very difficult for the Estonian to battle against Loeb, who was now further ahead of him. The Ford driver was ready to secure his second position when Gilles Panizzi passed him in the last stage.

Despite making some mistakes, notably in tyre choices, Francois Duval had a good rally and finished at a well-deserved fifth place. The Belgian is more at ease on asphalt so he should be competitive in the next two rallies as well.

A difficult month ahead for Subaru
Subaru is a step behind their rivals on asphalt. A difficult situation for the Japanese constructor, knowing that Petter Solberg still had a legitimate chance at the title. But with two more asphalt events coming up in October, the Norwegian must be worried.

Petter retired because his Impreza ran out of fuel, which is not exactly flattering for his team. His teammate Tommi Makinen finished the rally in tenth place, more than seven minutes behind the winner. Not really gratifying. At least Tommi brings back two points for Subaru for the Constructors' Championship.

First point for the Fabia
Even if Didier Auriol succeeded mostly because of the retirement of some of his rivals, at least the French driver was able to bring one point for Skoda, the very first for the Fabia. The main objective of Auriol was to cross the finish line to accelerate the development phase of the Fabia, who needs to be more competitive.

Toni Gardemeister didn't reach the finish line. The Finn had a crash when his Fabia suffered from brake problems in the second stage.

In Super 1600 bulgarian Peugeot 206 driver Dimitar Iliev took the final (third) podium position, ahead of Ville-Pertti Teuronen in his Suzuki, Punto pedaller Luca Cecchettini and Briton Guy Wilks in the Ford Puma.

Hugo GIGUERE
CAPSIS International, 5.10.2003