06
May
2001
|
10:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Uncatchable McRae leads Pirelli 1-2-3 and gives first win with Ford

Colin McRae drove his Ford Focus with Pirelli tyres to a dominant victory in the Argentina Rally. Second place for Richard Burns (Subaru-Pirelli), who finished ahead of third placed Carlos Sainz (Ford-Pirelli), thus covering with the PZero brand all the podium positions. McRae, Burns and Sainz together won 18 of the 21 Stages of the event, so giving the perfect demonstration of the performance of the PZero range of gravel tyres. This was achieved with both the K and KM pattern cover, and lead to an astonishing 7 Pirelli-fitted cars in the top 10 places of the rally.
This was Pirelli's third successive win in Argentina and was underlined with another dominant Group N result where Mitsubishi-Pirelli drivers filled the top four places.

This was Pirelli's 118th outright WRC victory and its seventh in Argentina. Walter Rohrl was Pirelli's victor in 1980 before Miki Biasion (1986, 1987), Carlos Sainz (1991), Juha Kankkunen (1999) and Richard Burns (2000) also won.


FINAL STANDINGS (21 SSs totally): 1. C. McRae (Ford-Pirelli), 4h18m25.3; 2. Burns (Subaru-Pirelli) +26.9; 3. Sainz (Ford-Pirelli) +1m26.4; 4. Makinen (Mitsubishi) +3m12.6 ; 5. Solberg (Subaru-Pirelli) +3m47.0; 6. Loix (Mitsubishi) +5m40.1; 7. Delecour (Ford-Pirelli) +6m10.9; 8. Arai (Subaru-Pirelli) +10m55.7; 9. A. McRae (Hyundai) +13.58.9; 10. (and 1st of Gr.N) Pozzo (Mitsubishi-Pirelli) +20m15.1


NEXT WORLD CHAMP. EVENT:
Cyprus (all gravel) 1-3 June