- Title: FRANCE/GERMANY: MONTE CARLO RALLY UNDER WAY
- Date: 21st January 1993
- Summary: REIMS, FRANCE AND BAD HOMBURG, GERMANY (JANUARY 21, 1993) REIMS 1. CARS LINED UP BEFORE START. 2. LANCIA INTEGRALE OF ITALY'S MIKI BIASION (NO.2) MOVING OFF ROSTRUM. 3. TOYOTA CELICA (NO 3) OF FRANCE'S HUBERT AURIOL 4. FORD ESCORT (NO.6) OF FRANCE'S FRANCOIS DELECOUR MOVING SLOWLY DOWN CROWDED RAMP. BAD HOMBURG 5. STAR
- Embargoed: 5th February 1993 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: REIMS, FRANCE / BAD HOMBURG, GERMANY
- Reuters ID: LVAPE89GGF3DHTC168F599Y3EUE
- Story Text: More than 140 cars set off from five European countries on Thursday (January 21) at the start of the Monte Carlo rally, the first race of the world championship season.
Competitors left Reims (France), Bad Homburg (Germany), Lausanne (Switzerland), Turin (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain) for an untimed liaison drive of between 1,000 and 1,200 kilometres to the principality.
The cars will reach Monte Carlo late on Friday from where the first timed stage will start on Saturday.
The rally proper will take the cars a further 3,091 kilometres through the Alpine hinterland and will include 22 timed stages totalling 593 kms, before a winner emerges next Wednesday.
The main favourites are Spanish world champion Carlos Sainz, who set off from Barcelona, and Frenchman Didier Auriol. Sainz has switched from Toyota to Lancia this year. Auriol and Finland's Juha Kankkunen, with Lancia last year, have moved in the opposite direction and now drive for Toyota.
Auriol and France's other main hope, Miki Biasion, chose the Reims startpoint. Biasion and compatriot Francois Delecour are hoping to recapture Ford's glory days. The British-based team have replaced the cumbersome Sierra with the Escort RS Cosworth.
Delacour has yet to win a world championship rally but Biasion has two titles to his name, in 1988 and 1989.
Kankkunen, world champion in 1986, 1987 and 1991, was the leading driver to start from Bad Homburg where the cars were led away by the Mitsubishi of Germany's Armin Schwarz. The fast, but sometimes reckless, Schwarz was with Toyota last year. Mitsubishi are hoping the smaller, lighter Lancer will perform better than the powerful but heavy Galant they ran in 1992.
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