RallyRACC, day 3: Victory for Sébastien Loeb and Constructors' World title for Citroën

(23/10/2011)

Sébastien Loeb (Citroën). RallyRACC 2011

After three days full of excitement, today finished in Salou the 47 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2011, penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship that fulfilled all the expectations created before the start. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena (Citroën DS3 WRC) achieved their seventh consecutive win in the Spanish round, a record very difficult to break in the future, and the French due takes the lead of the Championship just one race before its end. Loebs success mathematically secured the Constructors World Championship title to Citroën Total, the seventh for that brand in the history of the World Championship. 44 cars of the 58 that started the rally were able to reach its end.

The three days of the race were completely different. The first one, held on a very difficult mixed surface, was a very tough challenge for all the competitors and there were many retirements. The most important were those of Petter Solberg and Kimi Räikkönen, both with Citroën, who were not able to continue. In that first day Loeb was already the best, probably benefiting from the lack of dust in some sectors, as he was starting in first position. A puncture suffered by Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) left him out of the fight for victory and for the title. A problem he would have again in the second day.

In the other two days, now fully on tarmac, Loeb's dominion continued and Latvala was the only one able to get close to him, although half a minute behind, so the Citroën rider did not really feel the pressure. Dani Sordo also had a puncture the last day that ruined his chances to fight for the last step of the podium. Sébastien Ogier could not avoid trouble either, as he was forced to retire due to an engine failure in his Citroën in the last stage.

Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena finally won the 47 RallyRACC, with Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford) in second place after a team manoeuvre which meant a penalty for Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila, who gave Hirvonen their position to arrive to Wales with the minimum possible distance to Loeb. The stage winners of the race where shared by Latvala (6), Loeb (5), Ogier (4), Hirvonen (1), Sordo (1) and Meeke (1). The last stage win, Coll de la Teixeta, on wet tarmac, gave points for the top three, who were Meeke (3 points), Sordo (2) and Loeb (1).

The Rally de España was the last round of the SWRC (Super 2000), a championship were the new champion is Finn Juho Hänninen (Skoda), who also won this race in his category. The other candidate to the title, Estonian Ott Tänak (Ford), went out of track the first day and was only able to finish sixth, so he had to settle for the runner-up position.

In the PWRC (Production) class, Swedish rider Patrik Flodin (Subaru) achieved his first victory of the season that gives him the second place of the provisional standings. The already World Champion, Hayden Paddon (Subaru), retired in the first day due to mechanical problems, finished 8th.

Among the Spanish drivers, apart from the fourth position for Sordo-Del Barrio (Mini), we must underline the 14th place (4th in S2000) de Lemes-Peñate (Skoda), the 38th (11th in PWRC) for Llinàs-Torra (Mitsubishi) and the 44th for Lodeiro-Murado (Ford). The rest of Spanish drivers, Xevi Pons and Ferran Pujol, retired.

During the prize-giving ceremony a minute of silence was observed in memory of the MotoGP rider, Marco Simoncelli, who passed away today in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Final classification of the 47 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2011
1-Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena (F-MC/Citroën DS3 WRC), 4h.05’39”3
2-Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen (FIN/Ford Fiesta RS WRC), a 2’06”9
3-Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (FIN/Ford Fiesta RS WRC), a 2’32”4
4-Dani Sordo-Carlos del Barrio (E/Mini John Cooper Works WRC), a 3’24”1
5-Kris Meeke-Paul Nagle (GB-IRL/Mini John Cooper Works WRC), a 5’15”0
6-Mads Ostberg-Jonas Andersson (N-S/Ford Fiesta RS WRC), a 5’54”2
7-Evgeny Novikov-Denis Giraudet (RUS-F/Citroën DS3 WRC), a 9’31”8
8-Henning Solberg-Ilka Minor (N-A/Ford Fiesta RS WRC), a 9’40”1
9-Dennis Kuipers-Frederic Miclotte (Hol-B/Ford Fiesta RS WRC), a 11’13”8
10-Juho Hänninen-Mikko Markkula (Fin/Skoda Fabia S2000-1st SWRC), a 13’49”2
…
21-Patrik Flodin-Göran Bergsten (S/Subaru Impreza WRX-STi-1st PWRC), a 24’01”4
Etcetera until 44 classified.

Provisional standings of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship

Riders
1-Sébastien Loeb (France/Citroën), 222 points
2-Mikko Hirvonen (Finland/Ford), 214 points
3-Sébastien Ogier (France/Citroën), 193 points
4-Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland/Ford), 146 points
5-Petter Solberg (Norway/Citroën), 110 points
6-Mads Ostberg (Norway/Ford), 70 points
7-Dani Sordo (Spain/Mini), 57 points
8-Matthew Wilson (Great Britain/Ford), 53 points
9-Henning Solberg (Norway/Ford), 44 points
10-Kimi Räikkönen (Finland/Citroën), 34 points

Constructors
1 (Champion) Citroën Total World Rally Team, 397 points
2-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, 351 points
3-M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team, 145 points
4-Petter Solberg World Rally Team, 98 points
5-Ferm Power Tools World Rally Team, 44 points

SWRC (Súper 2000)
1 (Champion) Juho Hänninen (Finland/Skoda), 133 points
2-Ott Tänak (Estonia/Ford), 113 points
3-Martin Prokop (Czech Rep./Ford), 106 points
4-Bernardo Sousa (Portugal/Ford), 67 points
5-Hermann Gassner jr (Germany/Skoda), 65 points

PWRC (Production)
1 (Champion) Hayden Paddon (New Zealand/Subaru), 104 points
2-Patrik Flodin (Sweden/Subaru), 59 points
3-Michal Kósciuszko (Poland/Mitsubishi), 53 points
4-Martin Sémerad (Czech Rep./Mitsubishi), 51 points
5-Benito Guerra (Mexico/Mitsubishi), 47 points