Great battles

[Waldrons11]

After another dominant display from Sebastien in Portugal, it got me thinking, I can't remember the last time a battle for the rally win went right down to the last stage. Like the Burns and Kankunen battles in Finland and Arg in 1999.

I can think of a few battles for lower places -

2003 Petter beats Burns to 2nd by 1.2 seconds in Finland
2005 Hirvonen takes 3rd by 1.2 seconds in Spain over Pons
2006 The Carlsson/Galli battle in Sweden for 3rd

Any ideas? There must have been some awesome fights over the years, but after the Loeb/Gronholm domination of recent times I'm struggling to remember!!

[Erki]

Grönholm vs Loeb - Germany 2003 pops to my mind first.

[Vilkavainen]

A great battle took place in 1989 RAC Rally when the veteran driver and forum member, Pentti Airikkala won the event, in front of the debutant Carlos Sáinz. They were close but as Carlos said when the event finished, they tried everything to beat the finn but it was impossible.

Let´s see if Pentti can tell us something else of that battle.

[Peugeot206WRC]

Grönholm vs Loeb - Germany 2003 pops to my mind first.

Or the fight between Panizzi and Martin in Spain 2003, until last stage Loeb was leadning and Panizzi and Martin 2nd and 3rd.
On last stage Panizzi passed Loeb and Martin was only 0.6sec behind Loeb and 2nd place

[White Sauron]

Japan 2006 Gronholm versus Loeb... Very close too. the closest result since that Germany 2003 between them.

[Corny]

Portugal 2001!!

[Priorat]

Catalunya 2000: Colin McRae (Ford), Richard Burns (Subaru) + 6", Carlos Sainz (Ford) +11" before the long last stage.
In 2000 without reverse order and without splits these were not big differences.
Colin won.

[Lalo]

Australia 2003: Solberg vs. Loeb. Their positions weren't defined on the very last stage, but anyway, it was a very close fight. Same with Markko Martin and Petter Solberg in Wales 2002. The Norwegian won both events.

[FrankenSchwinn]

Or the fight between Panizzi and Martin in Spain 2003, until last stage Loeb was leadning and Panizzi and Martin 2nd and 3rd.
On last stage Panizzi passed Loeb and Martin was only 0.6sec behind Loeb and 2nd place

um um um um, tasty! i loved that one......


i also did not mind the hirvo/atko thinggy in MC this year.

[Lalo]

Tour de Corse 2004 is one of my favorites. Märtin vs. Duval. They swapped their positions on every stage. Finally, Francoises engine made the "stop" call and Markko won.

Arrrg! Where are those fights nowadays?? I'm not kinda a Loeb fan because with him, those fights are not happening anymore. Maybe one for Argentina? jaja