RallyRACC, day 3: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën), achieves his sixth victory

(24/10/2010)

The 46 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA finished today with a thrilling last day thanks to the hard-fought duel between Petter Solberg and Dani Sordo for the second position, completed by the sixth consecutive triumph at the Rally of Spain of Sébastien Loeb. This penultimate round of the FIA Rally Championship, although held with the world title already decided, didn't lack sporting interest in the three days of the rally.

Under similar weather conditions as yesterday, with nice temperatures and dry roads, the last day of the rally started with a considerable margin for Loeb in the lead. The third day consisted in two passes of the El Priorat (42.04 km) and La Serra d’Almos (4.11 km) stages, with the particularity to be, respectively, the longest and the shortest of the rally.

With the Spanish pair of Dani Sordo-Diego Vallejo (Citroën C4 WRC) determined to attack, which was confirmed with the fastest time in the three first stages. Solberg-Patterson (Citroën) had no other option than to resist the attacks in this exciting duel for the second position. Meanwhile, Loeb-Elena managed their comfortable lead that was more than 44 seconds over Solberg at the beginning of the day, that ended in 35.3 seconds. With a last effort, Solberg surprisingly set the fastest time in the last stage, reinforcing his superb second position in the overall classification. In the three days, the Citroën were fastest in all the stages, as the Fords of Latvala and Hirvonen were not able to win a single stage, not even the ones on gravel in the first day, and finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Aaron Burkart (Suzuki Swift), Junior World Champion
At the J-WRC class, for under-28 drivers, the Spanish duo of Yeray Lemes-Rogelio Peñate (Renault Clio S1600) won the rally despite suffering a pinchazo in this last day that made them lose the lead for a moment in favour of the Dutch pair of Hans Weijs-Bjorn Degandt (Citroën C2 S1600). Nevertheless, Weijs suffered an electrical problem in the last stage that made them lose, no only any chance of victory, but also the World Title, that finally went to the German driver Aaron Burkart (Suzuki Swift), 28, that despite retiring due to an off in the second day, was able to restart today and finish fourth, just behind Weijs, thus totalling enough points to claim the J-WRC World Championship title for the first time.
The Norwegian driver Henning Solberg (Ford Fiesta S2000) was the best of the Super 2000 cars and finished eighth overall. At the Group N victory was for Hermann Gassner Jr (Mitsubishi Lancer). Of the Spanish drivers, with a good representation in the top 20 spearheaded by Sordo-Vallejo in third, it is worthy to note the 12th position of Yeray Lemes (Renault), Albert Llovera’s (Grande Punto Abarth) 17th and the 19th place of Albert Orriols (Mitsubishi Lancer).

Expectation, public and diffusion
On the other hand, el RallyRACC was followed by a huge amount of fans during the three days, standing out for their correct behaviour and collocation during the 16 stages. There was no incident worth mentioning. The RACC made a great effort with a spectacular first day mixing gravel and asphalt, thus recovering the gravel that had not been present in the route since  1992. That allowed to recover the best years of the championship, establishing a precedent that will undoubtedly be repeated in other races and confirming the innovative spirit of the RACC. Another of the relevant aspects was the high diffusion of the rally, with one stage being broadcasted live by Canal 33 through www.elsesports.cat: the second pass through the Riudecanyes stage in the second day.

Final classification of the 46 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally of Spain
1-Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena (Citroën C4 WRC), 3h.32’59”7
2-Petter Solberg-Chris Patterson (Citroën C4 WRC), +35”3
3-Dani Sordo-Diego Vallejo (Citroën C4 WRC), +41”1
4-Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (Ford Focus RS WRC 2009), +1’19”5
5-Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Focus RS WRC 2009), +6’32”9
6-Matthew Wilson-Scott Martin (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), +8’17”6
7-Khalid Al Qassimi-Michael Orr (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), +13’05”7
8-Henning Solberg-Stephane Prévot (Ford Fiesta S2000), +13’11”2
9-Ken Block-Alex Gelsomino (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), +16’01”2
10-Sébastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia (Citroën C4 WRC), +17’24”1
etcetera until the 36 classified of 47 that started

Provisional classification of the FIA World Rally Champions
Drivers
1-(Champion) Sébastien Loeb (France/Citroën), 251 points
2-Sébastien Ogier (France/Citroën), 167 points
3-Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland/Ford), 156 points
4-Petter Solberg (Norway/Citroën), 151 points
5-Dani Sordo (Spain/Citroën), 140 points

Constructors
1 (Champion) Citroën Total World Rally Team, 431 points
2 (Runner-up) BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, 304 points
3-Citroën Júnior Team, 199 points
4-Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team, 158 points
5-Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team, 58 points

Final Classification of the Junior FIA World Championship
1-Aaron Burkart (Deutschland/Suzuki), 80 points
2-Hans Weijs (Netherlands/Citroën), 76 points
3-Todor Slavov (Bulgaria/Renault), 59 points
4-Karl Kruuda (Estonia/Suzuki), 51 points
5-Kevin Abbring (Netherlands/Renault), 46 points