Tarmac, donuts, champagne and a Peugeot. Ask me to play any sort of word association game for Gilles Panizzi, and these would be high on my list.
But not today. Not after a rummage through Girardo & Co’s extensive archive.
Available to purchase, along with over three million other photos across motorsport of course, I stumbled across this shot from 2004.
Topically, it’s from the Acropolis – which of course hosted last week’s 10th round of the 2023 World Rally Championship.
But, yes, that is Panizzi behind the wheel of that Mitsubishi Lancer WRC. He did drive things other than Peugeots, and he did do gravel rallies!
In fact, of Panizzi’s 71 WRC starts, 35 of them were on gravel or snow. That’s 49.3%.
Fun fact for you there, thanks ewrc-results!
For reference, Panizzi was the sole factory Mitsubishi that finished the 2004 Acropolis, in 10th overall. Petter Solberg won the event for Subaru, despite a bizarre 30-second penalty for running without mud flaps.
But the four words so synonymous with Panizzi don’t really apply to his two-year spell in a Lancer. Aside from a podium on the 2005 Monte, Panizzi’s Mitsubishi tenure was defined by mechanical failures, the odd accident and results far from befitting his glory days with a 206 WRC.
Two rallies, and two 10th place finishes, with Red Bull Škoda in 2006 finished off the Frenchman’s world championship career.
