SS13: Makinen fastest; Schwarz back to third
Tommi Makinen and Carlos Sainz matched each other virtually tenth for tenth on SS13, the 16.55km Loda-Luceram test, but that's fine for the Finn as he moves ever closer to a third straight Monte Carlo Rally victory
Makinen's 14m57.6s time was just 0.8s quicker than Sainz's. But with the Mitsubishi man holding a 1m09.7s lead over the Spaniard's Ford and just two more stages to go, it looks likely that Makinen will join Sandro Munari and Walter Rohrl in an exclusive club of drivers who have won the event three times on the trot.
Armin Schwarz took his Skoda to a stunning third best time, just 3.6s behind Makinen, but 3.2s faster than Francois Delecour's Ford.
With the battle for third as tight as you'd ever want, that put the German back into the final medal spot. If the situation stays as it is, the compact and bijou Skoda squad will be celebrating its first ever World Rally Championship podium in front of Monte Carlo's famous casino.
SS12 winner Freddy Loix was only sixth behind Toni Gardemeister's Grifone-run Peugeot, with Alister McRae, who punctured on SS12, seventh in his Hyundai.
The Group N Mitsubishi of production class ace Gustavo Trelles stopped Skoda's Bruno Thiry from claiming the eighth spot.
The cars will now service in Monte Carlo before a second run through both of this morning's pair of stages, starting with Sospel 2 at 12:28 local time (11:28 GMT).
1 Tommi Makinen (Mitsubishi), 14m57.6s
2 Carlos Sainz (Ford), 14m58.4s
3 Armin Schwarz (Skoda), 15m01.2s
4 Francois Delecour (Ford), 15m04.4s
5 Toni Gardemeister (Peugeot), 15m05.7s
6 Freddy Loix (Mitsubishi), 15m22.2s
1 Tommi Makinen (Mitsubishi), 3h57m05.9s
2 Carlos Sainz (Ford), 3h58m15.6s
3 Armin Schwarz (Skoda), 3h59m28.1s
4 Francois Delecour (Ford), 3h59m29.5s
5 Freddy Loix (Mitsubishi), 4h03m06.7s
6 Toni Gardemeister (Peugeot), 4h03m12.9s
7 Alister McRae (Hyundai), 4h05m28.1s
8 Bruno Thiry (Skoda), 4h10m04.8s
9 Olivier Gillet (Mitsubishi - GpN), 4h10m43.2s
10 Manfred Stohl (Mitsubishi - GpN), 4h13m14.8s
Share Or Save This Story
Porsche explains impact of 963 weight increase after Long Beach
Hadjar to be excluded from Miami GP qualifying over technical breach
F1 brings Miami GP start time forward due to thunderstorm threat
What we learned from the 2026 F1 Miami GP sprint race and qualifying
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments