fatal accident of Brazilian driver Thomas Fuchs, and featured chaotic conditions as parts of the course were not successfully closed for competition. Although only five teams made it to the finish, Mouton improved her title hopes by winning her duel with Röhrl after the German lost a wheel on the last day. At the 1000 Lakes, she clocked in the eighth fastest time for the famous Ouninpohja stage and placed seventh after the first day. On the following leg, Mouton drove too fast into a jump and damaged her Quattro while landing. After the next jump, her front wheels locked up and she rolled the car. Mouton was next locked in a tight battle for the win in Sanremo. Although she recorded nine stage wins and Audi took a one-two, she had to settle for fourth behind Röhrl. Audi had not originally planned to participate in the African marathon events, but now found it necessary to enter the penultimate round, the Rallye Côte d'Ivoire, due to their title battles with Opel. Just before the start of the event, Mouton received news that her father had succumbed to cancer in his house in Nice. His last wish was that Mouton start the rally. After a first day of over 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) of racing in temperatures over 30 °C (86 °F), she was eight minutes clear of Mikkola and nearly half an hour ahead of title rival Röhrl. Mikkola said that he had never been in such a hot car, and Röhrl estimated that the temperature inside his car reached an "almost unbearable" 70 °C (158 °F). With just over half of the 5,000 km (3,100 mi) behind, Mouton led from Röhrl by over an hour despite losing 25 minutes due to transmission problems. On the third day, both Mouton and Röhrl struggled with several reliability issues and her lead over Röhrl shrank to 18 minutes. The Toyota Celica GT2000s of Eklund and Waldegård were still over two hours behind. Should Mouton go on to hold off Röhrl, she would reduce Röhrl's lead in the championship to just two points. As a driver's seven best results counted towards the championship at the time, Mouton would only need a third place in the RAC Rally to take the title even if Röhrl would win. On the final day, she continued to suffer from mechanical problems and had the complete fuel injection