1986 – driving a Peugeot 205T16 for Peugeot Deutschland
“It was my call to leave Audi. I think I’d become a little fatigued. Prior to ’85 I’d done four busy WRC seasons, on the move for about 300 days a year, and wanted to cut back a little on my commitments. There were also four drivers in the team by then, with Hannu Mikkola, Walter Röhrl and Stig Blomqvist, and the atmosphere was no longer the way it had been with just two of us at the start.”
Friday January 24, 1986. Henri Toivonen with his Lancia Delta S4 arrives in Monaco; he had just won the most beautiful rally in the world. From Chatelard to Lucéram, 36 specials and 880 km against the clock. Seven days of mud, ice, sleet, laughter, tears, 114 hours live on RMC antennas, hundreds of thousands of spectators enchanted for a week and, at the end of the journey, one hero.
And it had almost ended soon in the rally. Just after the twelfth chrono stage, Toivonen was hit by a Ford Taunus, which came from the left. The Lancia was badly damaged with a bent chassis. Henri had a dislocated femur, his teammate Sergio Cresto had a problem with his knee. He only had 50 km and 25 minutes to reach the start of the 13th special. Team boss Cesare Fiorio wanted him to stop, but Toivonen refused. He arrived only one minute late at the start of SS 13 and received a one-minute penalty. With a crooked, uncontrollable car, with worn tires, Henri set the 7th fastest time; Fioro was speechless. During the assistance, the mechanics worked wonders to restore the Lancia to good condition, but the chassis was clearly twisted. Toivonen was in pain, he received anaesthetic injections from the team doctor for the 23 remaining stages, after he had put the thigh bone back in place. During the third day, the Lancia with the Finn at the wheel was the absolute hero and took the lead of the rally. But on Wednesday he lost 2min30 due to a flat tyre in Sisteron and another 40 seconds due to a wrong tyre choice. On Thursday the famous specials were on the program such as The Col de la Madone, du Turini, the Saint-Roch, de la Couillole, the Saint-Raphael, the Bleine. Alternating snow, ice and rain. It became a battle between the Lancia and the Peugeot of Timo Salonen. The smart Toivonen persevered and took a convincing lead during the night.
A week earlier in Aix-les Bains, everyone was introduced to the cars for the 1986 season. The favourites were the Peugeot 205 T16 E2 of Saby, Salonen and Kankkunen, the Delta S4 of Biasion, Alen and Toivonen, the monstrous Quattro S1 of Röhrl and Mikkola, the Métro 6R4 from Pond and the Citroen BX 4TC from Wambergue and Andruet. There was also a Peugeot 205 T16s, registered by Peugeot Talbot Deutschland. Michèle Mouton at the wheel and Terry Harryman next to her. The Frenchwoman, after almost being forgotten in her last year at Audi, was thrilled to be back in the rally world with a Group B car. She offered her services to Peugeot and to team boss Jean Todt. They were happy with such an acquisition. Michèle got a full program in Germany and two world championship events in her agenda. The switch from French to English did not seem to bother her or Harryman. The Englishman experienced a crash in Argentina last year, as Ari Vatanen's navigator, and was now fully recovered. Before the start of the rally they chose to use the shortest and easiest to understand words for their pace and road notes; they turned out to be more or less English for words and French for numbers. This first rally of the year was not a success. In the fourteenth section the Peugeot lost its oil pressure. Engine broken, end of rally.
Peugeot Germany was aiming for the German rally championship. Things started less well in the first rally, the Sachs Winter rally. The Peugeot with starting number 1 did not get far. Michele veers off the road on a wet and icy road surface. The car rolled into a canal and, despite the help of rushing spectators, could not get out.
Revenge in the ADAC Rallye Kohle und Stahl in the Saarbrücken area. From the first stage, Mouton-Harryman took the lead and a straight win. They repeated this in the Rallye Vorderpfalz around Ludwigshafen. The 205 Turbo 16 was a powerful car in the hands of a masterly driving Mouton.
Then came May 1, 1986. The start of the Tour de Corse. Before the rally, the newspapers only talked about Michèle Mouton's full factory return to the world championship with Peugeot. Between the national rallies there was time for a trip to the world championship. And Fabrizia was back. She was tempted by the prospect of a factory Peugeot. Her direct team-mates were Timo Salonen and Bruno Saby.
Stage 1. The perfect start. Peugeot's were one, two and three, with Saby, Salonen and Mouton separated by a handful of seconds over the 23-mile opener. For almost the rest of the first day, Mouton was on the cutting edge and still on the provisional podium. But somewhere in the 50 kilometres that separate Pont d'Altiani and Pont St Laurent, the Peugeot locked itself in gear. Mouton struggled on, but the starter engine refused and the rally was over.
Day 2, May 2, 1986! Bruno Saby was the fastest in the first chrono stage. Henri Toivonen then won all other stages with the Lancia Delta and just before the 18th stage he was leading the rally with 2 minutes 45 seconds. At the finish of the 18th stage, all journalists were waiting for Toivonen. The Lancia Delta S4 with number 4 clearly had lost time. Then, the rumours came. The Lancia had crashed, went off the road onto a verge a little lower and exploded. Henri Toivonen and navigator Cresto were killed instantly.
No one witnessed the accident, only a video amateur was able to capture the explosion and the smoke between the trees from afar. Bruno Saby, who had started a minute after Toivonen, arrived at the scene shortly after the accident and said: “We couldn't do anything. The car burned with the bodies inside. We felt powerless.” The emergency services also had no choice but to extinguish the flames and confirm the death of the two drivers. The gas tank, made of Kevlar and titanium, caused the explosion.
Cesare Fiorio, Lancia's sporting director: “Measures will have to be taken to prevent this imbalance of forces between the rally cars, the road and the racers from continuing. None of the three parameters are individually responsible for these types of tragedies, but together. A good measure would be to limit the power of the rally cars.”
This accident had a major impact on the history of motorsport. All Group B rally cars would be permanently banned from competition by the International Automobile Federation at the end of the season. It would be the start of a new era for the World Rally Championship.
This accident also had an impact on Michele. “After the first day I knew I was at my best. I was third but had a problem with the gearbox and had to stop. But for me it was the best rally. After that, I knew that if I continued, I would miss my family. I was 35 years old. It was clear to me, I said to Fredrik (Johnsson), my partner then, I said “it's over for me”.
End of May, Rally Hersfeld – Kirchheim. Swiss F1 driver Marc Surer battled with Michèle Mouton for the lead of the rally until he lost control of his powerful Ford RS200. He slided between the trees and was thrown out of the car upon impact. The car cought fire. His co-driver Michel Wyder stayed trapped in the car. Marc had burns and several broken bones.
After a retirement in the Hünsruck rally, Michèle won again three more rallies in a very dominant manner. The Rally Deutschland, the ADAC Sachs Rallye Baltic and the 3-Städte Rallye in October. She was the first woman in history to become German Rally champion. She dominated in Germany, winning six rallies and the title. But it was also the end for Michèle Mouton's rally career.
