Quote Originally Posted by PLuto View Post
But thats one of the reasons why they started with power stage - allow score points (give motivation) also for drivers who retired before...
Yeh, the original Rally2 was just for power stage. I remember the first experiments from 1999. I think the first one was in Tour de Corse and then the next one in Finland. Ruuhimäki was the power stage.

Tommi Mäkinen had retired on Ouninpohja with technical failures and started the power stage first, gave it absolutely everything, going on the limit. Didier Auriol had retired earlier in the day because technical problems had dropped him far behind. He did the same as Tommi, going actually a big quicker. Thomas Rådström attempted, but wasn't fast enough. Toni Gardemaister was the only one still in the rally who could score a point.

In the end it started raining so the Rally2 starters were in a superior position to those starting behind, kind of same as Monte 2017. It's actually crazy considering the events that led to this discussion altogether...

We also saw Colin McRae's Ford Focus's engine expire just before the end of the stage in front of live TV cameras. There was also live onboard footage from Tommi Mäkinen and I thought that was unbeliveable, totally futuristic.

Back then there was no official WRC TV, but the productions were local and were to be syndicated globally. Thus the Finnish reporter at the stage end congratulated Kankkunen, who had won the rally, in English. Kankkunen recognized the reporter and replied initially in Finnish. This is also where he gave his infamous "Black round Pirelli" reply and continued by criticizing the whole power stage format.