Green light for RallyRACC 2010

(21/10/2010)

The RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA kicked off this morning with the shakedown, the traditional testing session which, this year, was held close to Salou on a split gravel and tarmac surface over 2.94 km, in a preview of the first race day.

The main candidates for the podium this weekend proved to be the fastest today already: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) clinched the best time and local driver Dani Sordo was 5th fastest. This change of surface actually was the cause of today’s first incident: Kimi Räikkönen (Citröen C4 WRC) clipped a corner and his car rolled. The Citroën Junior Team’s driver will not take the start in this rally due to the damage he inflicted to the roll cage.

Sébastien Loeb achieved a time of 2’08”6 in his fourth and final pass, followed by Petter Solberg (Citroën/2’09”7), and Ford drivers Jari-Matti Latvala (2’09”8) and Mikko Hirvonen (2’09”9), who both made six passes. Dani Sordo (Citroën) was fifth on 2’10”1.

Large crowds of motorsports fans gathered in Salou to enjoy this innovative prelude to the RallyRACC. MotoGP rider Aleix Espargaró was also here, invited to co-drive Khalid Al Qassimi’s Ford Focus RS WRC. All priority drivers made at least the compulsory four passes, with Hungarian Frigyes Turán (Ford Focus) being the most active one with as much as nine.

Dani Sordo: “My starting position is good”
The FIA pre-event press conference was held early this afternoon, with Dani Sordo (Citroën) and Kimi Räikkönen (Citroën) attending, among others. “The RallyRACC is a special race for me, as it’s on home soil. I think I have a good starting position to fight for victory. Though the first day will be different, the rest will be similar to most years. I don’t like the tarmac pass with the gravel tyre: maybe it’s spectacular for the fans, but the car moves a lot, and it’s not easy for us. However, it’s a really nice idea from the RACC, the rally organizers”, said Dani Sordo.

“I touched the bank a little bit, the car jumped on the roof and hit the bank. It bent the roll cage and that’s it” explained Räikkönen about his incident, and added he would probably not stay for the rest of the weekend. Regarding his plans for next year, he declared “There are some options and, for sure, I have to chose very quickly and chose the right one for myself. I still enjoy rallying, but I’m disappointed with what happened today”. One of the pre-race activities today was a karting exhibition with all priority drivers at a track near Salou.

The official RallyRACC start is scheduled for tonight at 8pm, at the podium in Salou’s Waterfront. The competition starts tomorrow, with three two-pass special stages and 125.96 timed km. Day one is the main innovation this year, as two of the three special stages will be run on mixed surfaces (gravel and tarmac), and the final one is going to be gravel only.