Michelin Race of Champions: Day three.

Tommi Makinen today took the 2000 Michelin "Champion of Champions" title in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.

For a long time, victory has escaped Tommi M?kinen in the Michelin Race of Champions. At last, this weekend, he has finally put the record straight after beating Marcus Gr?nholm in an all-Finnish shoot-out.

It's been nine years since a Finnish driver last won the Race of Champions (Juha Kankkunen, 1991). This year at last, Tommi M?kinen and Marcus Gr?nholm have put Finland well and truly back on the map in this annual end-of-year showdown.

M?kinen, the outgoing champ, and the freshly crowned 2000 World Champion Gr?nholm, dominated this years competition and respectively eliminated Frenchmen Didier Auriol and Gilles Panizzi in the semi-finals.

With no fewer than five world titles represented as the two fastest Flying Finns of the year lined up for the start of the final, the 2000 Michelin Race of Champions lived every bit up to its name.

The competition certainly proved to be no Sunday afternoon jaunt; but instead an out-and-out combat for national supremacy and prestige back home.

Eventually, having been deprived by Gr?nholm this year of a fifth successive world Drivers' crown, Tommi M?kinen took sweet revenge by beating his fellow Finn, two heats to zero.

A victorious Tommi M?kinen said afterwards, "I wasn't feeling very well this morning; I had a bit of a fever. But after this morning's warm-up run I started to feel in great shape."

He explained, "I was totally concentrated on my racing today because I really wanted to win this year after getting knocked out either in the final or in the preliminary phases in the past. I took care not to make any time-consuming mistakes with the Toyota Corolla WRC and then kept it as smooth as possible with the Saab."

Gr?nholm, honest as ever, admitted that Makinen had been the better driver on the day, "No, I am not disappointed. Tommi was in unbeatable form today, and I made a few driving mistakes with the Toyota and then went a bit wide on one corner with the Saab; mistakes here are always costly in terms of time!

"Now it's time for me to start looking ahead to next January's Monte Carlo Rally where it will be a totally different thing altogether." He said.

Meanwhile, there had been some excellent racing leading up to the final, with last year's winner Didier Auriol getting off to an excellent start by winning his quarter-final duel, with the German Armin Schwarz, by a nail-biting 0.04 of a second,

A frustrated Armin Schwarz described his race, "It seems that every year I get knocked out by Didier Auriol! This year, I thought it was going to go my way, but I missed a gear-change through the final corner of our decisive heat!"

Meanwhile Marcus Gr?nholm scored a no-nonsense quarter-final win over his Swedish elder Stig Blomqvist.

The other quarter-final matches were won by Gilles Panizzi and Tommi M?kinen who were respectively easy winners over MotoGP 500 rider Valentino Rossi and local hero Flavio Alonso, winner of Friday's Michelin ROC-Spanish Masters.

Local driver Alonso had earned a popular place in the final phase after the withdrawal of sports-prototype racer Tom Kristensen, who had returned to European for professional reasons.

In the semi-finals, Tommi M?kinen won both his heats against Gilles Panizzi. Frenchman Panizzi gave his verdict, "Tommi was the best driver today; that's all there is to it. I didn't make any mistakes but there was nothing I could do to beat him. He was really fired up!

"Even so, the weekend has been fantastic since R?gis Laconi, Yvan Muller and I came away with victory for France in the Nations Cup." He added.

Meanwhile Marcus Gr?nholm got the better of Didier Auriol in the other semi, the Frenchman having got off to a poor start at the wheel of his Mitsubishi in their second duel.

Auriol explained, "I lost my semi-final at the start of the second heat when the clutch slipped too much on my Mitsubishi. After that, it was impossible to make up any ground on a guy like Marcus."

However, there's every chance that Auriol will be eager for revenge over his new Peugeot Sport teammate when the 2001 World Championship kicks off with the Monte Carlo Rally in January!

Valentino Rossi, beaten in the quarter finals, remained as enthusiastic as ever, "I have absolutely loved this weekend because it saw two of my dreams come true: I got to drive a "WRC" car [World Rally Car] and I also got to sit alongside Didier Auriol... as a passenger."

The stars of Motorsport will now begin their well-earned winter break, before returning to the cauldron of World Championship competition next year.