Rally Australia : Mitsubishi Motors
The Mitsubishi Motorsport crew of Harri Rovanpera and Risto Pietilainen claimed the team`s best result of the season today when they finished on the podium in second position. The Finns claimed five fastest stage times during the three-day event, demonstrating the increased performance of the Lancer WRC05. Team-mates “Gigi” Galli and Guido d`Amore finished a fine fifth in only their second outing in Rally Australia.

The final leg of Rally Australia was the shortest at 103.32 competitive kilometers. However, the route still took in two loops of three identical stages and with battles throughout the top of the leaderboard, action was always guaranteed to be fast and furious. The stages have been as tricky as ever, with all the crews reporting unbelievably slippery conditions on the fast and flowing roads.

class="link_more">Harri Rovanpera started the day in third but in the first stage he reduced the gap to Colin McRae to just 3.5 seconds. Then, in the longest stage of the event (Helena North), the Finn powered ahead of his rival to claim a 4.7 second advantage in the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05. Consolidating the position in the last of these three stages, Harri beat rally leader, Citroën`s François Duval, and a charging Chris Atkinson in the Subaru Impreza, to claim another fastest stage time.

Harri and Risto returned to the mid-leg service with a 6.9 second advantage going into the final three stages. However, the task ahead was made much easier when what should have been a routine clutch change on McRae`s Škoda saw the crew go over the time permitted. So, even though the pressure was off the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 crew, they still had three stages to complete without mistakes before returning to Perth in a fantastic second position.

“I am very, very happy for the whole team,” said a delighted Harri, “and especially for all the mechanics who have worked so hard since the beginning of the season. It`s been a great rally for us; the car has worked well, the performance and speed has been good and the feeling has been right all weekend. It`s a great way to round off the year.”

Gigi Galli, who had climbed as high as fourth yesterday, slipped from fifth to seventh this morning. The Italian had no problems, but was once again tackling stages for the first time and intent on finishing the rally without incident. This afternoon however he still had to continue defending his position from a charging Roman Kresta and, following the retirements of McRae and Toni Gardemeister, the crew claimed fifth overall.

“It`s been a really, really tough rally,” said Gigi. “Now I can see and believe why it`s so important to have experience of this event with the surface, pace notes, speed; everything that makes a difference to your performance. I have to keep in mind our goal was to finish, but fifth is a good position for us.”

Isao Torii, Head of Mitsubishi Motorsport said: “Finally, a great rally! I am very pleased and so proud of our team; thank you very much to Harri, Risto and everyone. The first and last rally of the season we achieved a podium position and this leads us into next year in a very positive way; a very big thank you. Gigi also kept our team orders and finished in fifth position, which is very good.”

Adding to their comments, Roger Estrada, Principal Rally Engineer said: “I`m very pleased; this podium is the result of a fantastic team effort. The cars have run extremely reliably all weekend and it`s a big confidence boost for our 2006 campaign. Congratulations to Harri, Risto, Gigi and Guido for their performance on this rally and it`s a great gift, from the team, to Andrew (Cowan) on his last event.”

Rally Australia closed the 2005 FIA World Rally Championship season and although the crews don`t return to competitive action until Rallye Monte-Carlo, in January 2006, teams will now start a hectic round of test and development work for next season.


Tags: australia, mitsubishi, rovanpera, galli, lancer, evo,