Rally Australia was held on  November 4-7, based in Perth.

World Rally Championship Round 13

This year Rally Australia was again the second last round of the WRC but Mäkinen came to Australia leading Auriol by 6 points with Kankkunen, Sainz and Burns all mathematically still able to win the title. This year the APRC round moved to Canberra so Rally Australia was only a WRC round and attracted a smaller field of 49 cars. Mitsubishi brough Loix in support of Mäkinen, Toyota brought out Sainz and Auriol, Subaru Burns and Kankkunen, Ford now with McRae and Rådström, the new Peugeot team with Delecour and Grönholm, and SEAT with Rovanperä and Gardemeister. There was also another new team, Hyundai with Eriksson and Alister McRae. So it was a really solid entry of internationals. And of course locals Possum Bourne for Subaru, Neal Bates for Toyota and Ed Ordynski for Mistubishi.

Kankkunen retired on day one with suspension failure, as did Auriol after hitting a tree, pretty much putting paid to his title chances. McRae crashed out on the first stage of day two, as did Bates a few stages later, Bourne retired with engine troubles while Delecour’s Focus had gearbox failure. Out front became a two horse race between Burns and Sainz, while Mäkinen struggles with road position and an eye on his title. At the end of the first full day, Sainz was 6 seconds up on Burns, then after the second day the positions were reversed with a gap of only 4 seconds which Burns extended to 12 seconds by the finish.  Mäkinen was a distant third, enough to secure the WRC title. His leam-mate Loix was in fourth, minutes adrift. Ordynski was the best of the locals in twelfth.