Sainz excluded from Rally Australia and championship

Ford backed Carlos Sainz was excluded from the Rally Australia round after pausing between the yellow safety sign and the end stage line today. The next stage is predominantly loose gravel and all of the drivers were jockeying for a later starting position so that they would benefit from others sweeping away the loose surface. After deliberation, officials excluded Sainz from the event as he stopped in full view of VIP spectators and track officials. This effectively puts paid to his extreme long shot of winning the WRC crown for 2000.

you would not even know that this rally was happening in melbourne - ch7,ch9 pathetic, didnt watch ch10 - why didnt they have 1st day highlights, what about pay tv, foxtel did jack sh!t....

Ouch...stupid stupid Sainz...let this be a lesson to the rest of ya'll :o

We just got the highlights from Corsica! Thank heavens for the internet.

I have heard rumours that the Network Q Rally may be cancelled due to another Petrol Problem in the UK. How likely is this to happen and what will it mean to the championships if so? (Can we just give it to Burns?) [No, I didn't think so.]

P.S. Do you realise if Tommi had won this year, the winners in THREE SERIES would have been Marlboro cars?

just heard that tommi has got dq'd from rally australia - something to do with a turbo i think, gronholm gains an extra point on burns.

Thus leaving our boy Richard needing to win Rally GB and pray that Gronholm has a DNF for whatever reason.

Perhaps we can organise a blockade to stop Peugeot bringing in their cars through Dover...

I think that Burns has to win and Groholm be lower than 5th for a Burns victory, so he's going to need a bit of help. rather than blockade the Pugs, I thought it might be a good idea to encourage Juha, Carlos, Colin and Tommi to get their respective fingers out sufficiently, but not too much.

It shows how close rallying is today though, if Burns had been 3 sec faster over the entire Rally Australia he'd only be 1 point behind now.

The turbo in Makinen's car was not the homologation that the FIA (or FAI or FIM according to ch10 - don't ask) had for the part. Ralliart do not make this part, it is supplied by Mitsubishi themselves and Ralliart are not appealing.

This leaves Gronholm leading Burns by 9 points. This means that they will tie if Burns wins and Gronholm is 6th. If Burns doesn't win he has no chance (which was the same as before anyway) and if Gronholm finishes 5th or higher he has won. If they are tied it comes down to wins, then seconds if wins are equal, etc. Anyone know how many wins they each have?

According to Autosport burns takes the tie because of more 4th places!

Not quite as close as CART this year - that would have gone to Adrian Fernandez on the best number of SEVENTHS. But that is a good result as it's more fun to see a close championship. And in a rally anything can happen.

I would say that it would be a real miracle if Grönholm won't win championship. What I predict is that Grönholm finishes Network Q in top 3. Pair Grönholm - Peugeot is the fastest at the moment in non-asphalt rallies, although Burns is maybe best in RAC.