Auriol wins the battle, Juha wins the war
Juha Kankkunen took victory on the Rally Finland, while Didier Auriol salvaged three points by winning the Live TV stage at the end of the event
Kankkunen did just enough to hold off his charging Subaru team-mate Richard Burns. The pair finished 7.7s apart after nearly 380kms of rallying.
Carlos Sainz was 3rd ahead of Marcus Gronholm, who took it easy on the final day to make sure he finished in his Peugeot 206.
Colin McRae has never had a happy time on this event, but this year will rank as one of his most disappointing experiences.
He was happy to be running in a secure 4th place going into leg three, but lost nearly two minutes with an engine problem on the penultimate stage.
With his windscreen covered in oil, the team presumed that a piston was to blame, and prayed it would last long enough for McRae to cover the final 7km stage.
Frustratingly, the Ford Focus gave up just 2km from home and McRae will leave Finland empty-handed, his title hopes now dashed.
Didier Auriol had been off the pace for the whole weekend, so the Toyota team took a gamble and withdrew him from the event this morning.
A centre diff change cured the handling problems that had wrecked his rally, and he duly won the Live TV stage by just 0.8s from Tommi Makinen, taking three useful bonus points as a result.
Result of Live TV stage (top three score points)
| 1 | Didier Auriol | Toyota Corolla | 3m20.4s |
| 2 | Tommi Makinen | Mitsubishi Lancer | 3m21.2s |
| 3 | Toni Gardemeister | SEAT Cordoba | 3m23.8s |
| 4 | Thomas Radstrom | Ford Focus | 3m24.0s |
| 5 | Marcus Gronholm | Peugeot 206 | 3m27.1s |
Overall result of the Rally Finland:
| 1 | Juha Kankkunen | Subaru Impreza | 3h08m54.5s |
| 2 | Richard Burns | Subaru Impreza | 3h09m04.2s |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Toyota Corolla | 3h09m12.5s |
| 4 | Marcus Gronholm | Peugeot 206 | 3h09m36.7s |
| 5 | Harri Rovanpera | SEAT Cordoba | 3h10m54.6s |
| 6 | Toni Gardemeister | SEAT Cordoba | 3h11m44.0s |
| 7 | Sebastian Lindholm | Ford Escort | 3h12m59.2s |
| 8 | Janne Tuohine | Ford Escort | 3h17m59.5s |
| 9 | Francois Delecour | Peugeot 206 | 3h18m08.9s |
| 10 | Freddy Loix | Mitsubishi Carisma | 3h19m33.5s |
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