RallyRACC, day 1: Loeb-Ogier, spectacular duel on top

(22/10/2010)

The RallyRACC Catalunya–COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España finished with a spectacular duel on top that left alone in the lead two of the Citroën drivers, Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier, separated by a difference of only 3.8 seconds. This first day of the rally saw the novelty of two mixed stages gravel-asphalt: Terra Alta and Les Garrigues, and another gravel-only stage: La Ribera d’Ebre. The difficulties for the 47 cars that took the start were the 126 timed kilometres divided in six stages and the expectations raised by the presence of gravel in the route.

With a really nice weather, despite some foggy areas in the morning, there was a big fight for the first positions. At Terra Alta, the longest stage of this first day, with nearly 36 km, Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) was the fastest, as he did in the third stage, Les Garrigues (12.07 km). Petter Solberg (Citroën) won the second stage, La Ribera d’Ebre, although the provisional classification after the first loop made it clear that Loeb was going as fast as he could, just in front of Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford).

In the second pass over these stages, Ogier started an attack that allowed him to win the first stage, while Solberg was the fastest in the second and Loeb won the third. The situation ended with the two first positions separated by only 3.8 seconds.

Dani Sordo (Citroën) did not feel at ease in this first day of the rally and, except the second stage, were he finished second, the rest of results were not very good, which sent him to the sixth place of the classification, more than 50 seconds behind the leader. Yeray Lemes (Renault) was the first in J-WRC, the Junior Championship.

The race, organized by the RACC and based in Salou and PortAventura, was followed by a huge amount of spectators, that can be even bigger in the weekend. Tomorrow will be the second day of the race, with 126.6 timed kilometres divided in another six stages, all of them on tarmac.

RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España classification after day 1
1-Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena (Citroën C4 WRC), 1h.25’26”8
2-Sébastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia (Citroën C4 WRC), a 3”8
3-Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (Ford Focus RS WRC 2009), a 19”9
4-Petter Solberg-Chris Patterson (Citroën C4 WRC), a 22”4
5-Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Focus RS WRC 2009), a 42”4
6-Dani Sordo-Diego Vallejo (Citroën C4 WRC), a 54”7
7-Matthew Wilson-Scott Martin (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), a 2’46”9
8-Federico Villagra-José Díaz (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), a 3’21”2
9-Ken Block-Alex Gelsomino (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), a 3’42”8
10-Henning Solberg-Stéphane Prévot (Ford Fiesta S2000), a 4’21”6