What a day it was. Cyprus is living up to its billing as the toughest rally on this year’s circuit. Here’s a quick rundown on who didn’t make it through the day:

* Marcus Gronholm: propshaft. He ran on stage with front wheel drive only, then lost all power.
* Richard Burns: transmission. More issues with the gearbox. Not a good sign.
* Markko Martin: engine.
* Francois Duval: engine. Both Fords died nearly simultaneously.
* Tommi Makinen: more on this later.

Petter Solberg currently leads Harri Rovanpera by 25 seconds. Seb Loeb is almost 3 minutes behind Rovanpera in third, followed by Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz. This is Solberg’s rally to win or lose. Rovanpera has had some problems with his 206 already, but he’s managed to hang on so far, but the durability of the car will be in question given what’s happened to Burns and Gronholm. Solberg should be able to drive cautiously tomorrow (like he said he was doing today) so I expect that he’ll take first, but who knows what will happen.

More on Tommi…..Makinen was looking good at the beginning of the day, taking SS5 and putting himself in contention. Then he smashed his rear wheel on SS6, and took nearly 20 minutes to get the car going again. He finished the stage, but made it to the start of SS7 too late, though he continued to run. In fact, he did more than run. Tommi proved he was still quite a driver by taking three more stage wins before being informed that he was disqualified for his time violation between SS6 and SS7. This is again quite a frustrating year for Makinen. He’s proven that he’s still a force, but loads of bad luck have kept him off the podium (besides his second place in Sweden).

Speaking of bad luck…Hyundai will not finish a car again. Both Loix and Schwarz have retired, and Skoda will have his points streak broken as Auriol and Gardemeister are both out. Expect good things from the debut of the new Fabia in Germany though.

Citroen is having a good rally, despite only having a shot at putting on driver on the podium. All three cars look good to finish the event. This will give them enough points (regardless of what Rovanpera does) to take the lead in the maker’s championship. Quite an achievement for a team running its first full WRC season.

Posted on 21 June 2003