Tommi Makinen dramatically crashed out of the Rally of Corsica this afternoon and was lucky to walk away unscathed from the scene. The four-time world champion was involved in a serious accident on the fifth and final special stage of the opening day when his Mitsubishi car left the road, crashing spectacularly and then somersaulting several times before catching fire.
Makinen's co-driver, Risto Mannisenmaki, was airlifted to hospital to undergo tests after he complained of a back problem when cut freed from the car. "He's fine. He can move his head and limbs but was brought to hospital for checks," confirmed a team spokesperson afterwards.
Despite his frightening accident, Makinen insisted the narrow Corsican roads are no more dangerous than any other event in the championship. "It was a very big accident. It was quite a fast place and the car flipped very quickly. But this rally really isn't much more dangerous than others but it's the sort of place where your car has to be 100% from the very first corner. It's not possible to develop a car here," he explained.
Because of the accident, the fifth stage was scrapped. Initially, the organisers attempted to give all remaining drivers a nominal time for the fifth stage but that would have pushed Citroen driver Jesus Puras of Spain down from first spot into third behind the Peugeot pair of Gilles Panizzi and Didier Auriol. With Citroen unhappy with that move, it was decided to scrap the fifth stage altogether, and so Puras remains the overnight leader after four stages by 10.5 seconds from Panizzi with Auriol a further 0.8 seconds behind.
This incident is another blow for Makinen who was forced to quit the San Remo Rally earlier this month when a wheel came off his car. His world rally championship co-leader Colin McRae also suffered a bad day today and is well down the field in 11th spot, two minutes and 11.4 seconds behind Puras. Both McRae and British rival Richard Burns were hampered by damaged wheels on the second stage which lost them over a minute. However, McRae is the highest placed of the championship contenders as Makinen and Carlos Sainz were both forced to retire.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
