1990: Sainz's maiden WRC win

If you rattle the bars of the lion's cage enough, you must expect to have your hand bitten. And when Sainz's Toyota came under intense pressure from Kankkunen's Lancia on the long third leg of the Acropolis Rally, it looked as though the Italian camp had had enough of being taunted. But Sainz was having none of it, banging in a quick time whenever his friend got too close for comfort - just to show that he was in no way prepared to let even a friend rob him of success this time.

In the end, it came down to a two-horse race. Mikael Ericsson had led the first day but on the second suffered power steering failure and then a puncture which put him out of the running for the champagne. Lancia lost Didier Auriol on the second day with a broken crank case and Miki Biasion had been forced to abandon his active part in the battle at the front after differential failure dropped him too far behind Kankkunen.

"We have been very careful about our preparation for this event," explained Toyota Team Europe engineer, Gerd Pfeiffer (or 'Herman the German' as Sainz has taken to calling him) prior to the start last Sunday. "Last year was a disaster for us but we have built the cars properly this time." And he was right, for there was no repeat of 1989 when the Celicas virtually fell apart at the seams.

Indeed, this time, it was the other teams that got their sums wrong and a string of dejected representatives could be seen shuffling around Lagonissi as news of yet another problem filtered back through the frustratingly quaint Greek telephone 'system'.

No-one really came away from Greece with their heads high, save for Toyota of course. One could perhaps forgive the likes of Subaru and Volkswagen for not making the grade first time out, but when both Lancia and Mitsubishi struggle then you know all is not at ease with the world.

Mitsubishi sent two cars to the event and neither finished. Kenneth Eriksson was one of the three drivers who shared fastest time on the superspecial which opened proceedings on Sunday but he slipped back during the day. Throughout Monday he battled on but eventually succumbed on Tuesday to a blown turbo.

Things had been going well, with Eriksson up in the top six and running not far short of the pace. It was his team mate, Ari Vatanen, who had been having the drama. Having convinced himself that he should drive faster ("I was afraid to punish the car," he had confessed), he then found that Greece is an unforgiving place with a tendency to wreck wheels and suspension at every turn.

Several helicopter pilots following the event for different teams' service requirements remarked on how he had been trying but had also been off the road on occasion. At one point, he finished a stage with damage to three of his four wheels although it was probably thanks to Michelin's ATS tyre system that there were no punctures on that occasion.

The Mitsubishis had finished Monday in the top six, in Erikkson's case a remarkable achievement considering he did not have a fully functioning throttle for most of the day, something not spotted until the final, lengthy service halt.

However, from the start the next day, Eriksson was struggling with high temperatures and low turbo boost, collecting 4 minutes road penalties as the team attempted to fix the problem. But, clouds of white smoke were seen emerging from the car soon afterwards and on stage 22 the unequal struggle was over.

Vatanen appeared to have similar problems as his Galant was showing the same symptoms. Two turbo pipes were changed in the morning. In the meantime, he continued to rattle the scenery and required new wishbones and dampers as a result.

He had moved up to fourth before he clouted something again and dropped back to seventh. The turbo was changed again to try to cure the boost problems that persisted but it was beginning to look like a rally which would end in tears. And sure enough it did when the Finn finally found a part of Greece that refused to give when the Mitsubishi hit it, the front of the car too badly damaged for the team to fix in time. Ari was suitable contrite afterwards, reflecting, "Mitsubishi is going to have to start winning rallies again and Vatanen must learn to behave himself!"

Many said that this was one of the toughest Acropolis Rallies they had seen for some time and Ari had seen how true this was. When a member of the Ford team (like Nissan, in Greece to watch, test and learn) wandered over to him for a chat, Ari looked up and said, "You must make a really strong car for this event!"

If the Ralliart boys were working hard, then the Prodrive team was busier than Beirut bricklayers. From only the second stage of the event, Markku Alen's Subaru Legacy RS had shown a worrying desire to shake itself apart. Time after time suspension was left hanging loose and propshafts reached the end of stages with significantly less bolts holding them together than there had been at the start.

Oddly enough, the blame was laid firmly on the tyres. Testing had been carried out prior to the event with normal Michelin rubber and nothing had broken. Indeed, the team would probably have been happier if something had broken for that is the only way to discover the weak points. What the tests had not done, however, was to see what long-term effect ATS tyres would have on the car. They are 3kg heavier because of the mousse insert and need to be run at 0.6bar higher pressure. This adds weight and rigidity to each corner of the car and, with the constant pounding dished out by the Greek roads, the rest of the car could not absorb the vibration.

Such was the way of this year's event that seemingly innocuous occurrences would set off vicious spirals of disasters. A puncture on Tuesday afternoon destroyed the wheel and damper of Subaru and it was then discovered that the shattered remains of the wheel and tyre had also damaged the intercooler pump, causing another drop in power. Despite this, Alen was up to sixth overall and had set a couple of fastest times along the way so things were all bad.

The other newcomers to the series were Volkswagen. There were pre-event suggestions that the new Golf may be withdrawn due to lack of spares but they arrived in time and Erwin Weber was among the World Championship contenders for the first time with the supercharged four-wheel drive car.

It was clearly more of a test and development exercise this time, however, as the car never really got into the groove. Broken ball joints forced a long delay in the first stage on Monday as the car had to be fixed in the test, and the suspension continued to prove fragile. Power must have been a premium too, for the car was running significantly softer Pirelli rubber than the Toyotas yet the covers were barely marked at the end of stages.

By Monday afternoon, as the suspension was changed yet again, Weber reflected, "If this is the end of our troubles, then we can finish the rally." But it wasn't, the suspension needed more attention and, at the final control of the day, the Golf was withdrawn.

As Volkswagen went back to the beach, Subaru began to look, finally, as if it had sorted the immediate problems and could spend time before the 1000 Lakes getting it absolutely right. Alen was able to put his foot down a bit, although he was never really able to show signs that the Legacy can take on Lancia and Toyota just yet as the head gasket was weakening. And then it turned sour once again. At probably the furthest point from the rally base, the engine failed, apparently due to over-revving which broke the rocker arm.

So both newcomers joined Mitsubishi on the sidelines. Mikael Ericsson's Toyota had received new power steering but then collected its only real puncture of the rally and was never again able to get close enough to affect the result at the front.

The tyre battle was going in Pirelli's favour for two reasons. Michelin was relying heavily on its ATS inserts and many times we saw Lancias emerge from stages with badly damaged side-walls but relatively upright tyres and little time loss. Pirelli does not have this system, nor does it seem too inclined to follow Michelin's lead anyway. The Italian rubber, however, is designed to avoid punctures in the first place, special reinforcing being used to eradicate the problem.

"I lost a bit of confidence when I had a puncture the first time I used these special tyres," reflected Sainz, "but after that everything was perfect and the tyres were completely right for the event."

Of course, Toyota has a trump card in the tyre department. Maurice Guislard joined the team at the start of the year...from Michelin! He had intimate knowledge, therefore, of the advantages and disadvantages that each tyre would offer. And he had a trick up his sleeve as well.

Tyres operate at specific temperatures and pressures. Even in the heat of Greece, it takes a kilometre or two to reach this optimum point so Pirelli had the tyre warmers out to give Sainz and Ericsson the perfect combination from the start of each stage. Why not Michelin? "They cannot do it here," explained Guislard. "The material in the tyres will not accept it properly, so we had the advantage."

Lancia's problems were not solely connected to tyres, however. On the first day, both Didier Auriol and Juha Kankkunen suffered power steering failure, Auriol's continuing on Monday as well. Only Miki Biasion escaped this particular inconvenience. "It is terrible," insisted Auriol, who could see his championship lead slipping away if it was not resolved quickly. "I have no confidence at the moment, because I do not know how the steering will react at every turn. It is hard, soft, hard, soft all the time - impossible!"

The vibration from the roads had already forced the Lancia mechanics to fit a new dip-stick tube to Auriol's car but, when the end came on Tuesday, it was through a broken crank case which could not be replaced or repaired in time. No points for Auriol in Greece and, with Sainz on his way to an historic win, it would be a Spaniard who led the series for the first time.

Lancia's tactics in Greece were the subject of much speculation. It seemed on Monday and Tuesday that Kankkunen had the role of attacker, trying to force Sainz to make a mistake or push the Celica that bit too hard. But the Matador is better equipped these days to withstand the pressure. Kankkunen closed the gap and on one stage actually pushed the Lancia into the lead by a single second. Sainz restored the balance immediately and that was the only occasion in the whole event that a Lancia actually led. Strange times...

Lancia's Achilles Heel this time was its transmission. Once the steering problems had been solved for Auriol and Kankkunen, it was Biasion who hit trouble when the diff broke. At the time he was beginning to move up on Kankkunen who had slipped back from his bull fight after finding the Delta jammed in fourth gear.

After the diff failure, the team turned the boost down and settled for safe points for the Italian while Kankkunen set about his prey once more. Now he was almost a minute back, the furthest the battling duo had been apart, and it was all-out warfare. But it was at least a fair fight.

"Juha and I were so close last year when we were at Toyota that we each knew what the other would be thinking and planning. The long stage, Tarzan, would be the turning point. I would drive safely through that stage and then attack to make sure of victory," declared the Spaniard.

Kankkunen beat him by 7 seconds on Tarzan but Sainz promptly pulled it back on the next stage! This was a real battle to the finish. The gap had come down to around 26 seconds, still close enough for a puncture to decide the issue, but that was as far as Sainz would allow. Gradually he eased clear; a second here, a couple there. Lancia had no answer.

Biasion was stuck a couple of minutes behind the lead battle and Ericsson's Toyota was fourth, 12 minutes further adrift. Alex Fiorio was in no position to challenge either, the Fina Lancia also struggling with transmission worries and requiring a new gearbox during the final day. Michele Rayneri was on course for his best ever result at this level while 'Jigger' had the honour of being the top Greek home in seventh place, albeit an hour off the lead but well clear of the Group N protagonists in eight and ninth.

"I first came to Greece 17 years ago," said TTE President, Ove Andersson, "and this is a long time to wait for the first success." He had probably aged a bit in the past few days as well, hoping that it would all go right this time.

Naturally, Sainz was ecstatic about the win. "I am leading the championship but that is not important. What matters is this win. Everyone has worked so hard and now they are rewarded." None more so, perhaps, than Herr Pfeiffer. He has dreamed about Sainz's first win for a long time - had a few nightmares about it too - and if he now leaves the team, as he says he will, he can do so with a happy heart.

The Lancia drivers summed up the moment best. "The Matador was terrific today. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not beat him," said Kankkunen. And Biasion added, "The Toyota combination was just unbeatable this time."

And we all drank to that...