Fabrizia Pons. Mouton won seven stages and took a career-best fourth place, despite suffering from electronic problems. This ended criticism of Audi for signing a female driver. After a retirement due to a broken camshaft in the Tour de Corse, Mouton set several fastest times at the Acropolis Rally in Greece. While Mikkola was leading and Mouton fifth, the stewards excluded the Quattros citing homologation infractions. Although Audi protested, the stewards upheld the decision. In her debut in the high-speed 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland, Mouton found it hard to get used to the rhythm changes. She recorded a few top-ten stage times and finished 13th. She was satisfied with her performance, and the local newspaper Keskisuomalainen described her debut as successful. At the Rallye Sanremo in Italy, a mixed surface event with tarmac and gravel, Mouton took the lead when the local star Michele Cinotto crashed and held off Henri Toivonen and Ari Vatanen to take the victory. This marked the first time a female driver had won a world championship event in rallying. Mouton's male rivals were left speechless. Earlier during the weekend, Vatanen had been confident: "Never can nor will I lose to a woman." Mouton recalled her debut win in a 2008 interview for RallySport Magazine: I remember not just because it was a win, but also because it was a big fight right into the last night. Fabrizia reminded me the other night that we had a problem with the brake pads, so we lost a lot of time. We finished three days rallying (with one day to go), night and day, 32 seconds in front of Ari Vatanen. We drove the last special stage for the night, came back to the hotel and I could not sleep at all, four hours in front of me and no sleep. Then I arrive at the special stage, it's about 42 km long, and I look at Fabrizia and I said "OK, we forget everything, and we are at the first stage of the rally again, because one of us will crash." And so Ari hit a rock, and we won the rally. In the season-ending RAC Rally in Great Britain, Mouton continued her good performances by running third at half distance, despite having been uncomfortable about competing in a rally where pacenotes and practice are not allowed. However, her Quattro later incurred gearbox problems and she