RallyRACC, day 1: Mads Ostberg (Ford) keeps Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) at bay
(09/11/2012) |
Mads Østberg (Ford) played his cards well in a tough day marked by the morning rain and the mud it provoked in some sections in the afternoon. He put up a great performance and now sits on top of the overall classification for the 48 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA at the end of day one, 27 seconds ahead of Sébastien Loeb (Citroën). The French World Champion started with caution but then clinched two scratch times in the longer stage of the day, in both runs, and he now stands in a good position to challenge for victory.
The rain brutally determined the whole morning. The first stage (Gandesa, 7 km), an all-gravel section, was raced in dry conditions. However, the rain came down on stages 2 (Pesells, 26.59 km) and 3 (Terra Alta, 44.02 km), and totally modified the grip. Some bits became extremely slippery and caused off-track incidents, while others became all sodden and muddy as cars passed, turning the race into a much tougher test.
Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) clinched the fastest time in SS1, ahead of Sébastien Loeb. SS2 ended with a joint victory for Estonian Ott Tänak and Norwegian Mads Østberg (both on Ford). They finished even after making the best of good amount of slippery sections, but Tänak led the overall classification one tenth of a second ahead of Østberg. In SS3, Loeb was crowned with the fastest time but still did not make it to the top three, while Østberg demoted Tänak in the overall standings.
By midday wrap, Norwegian Mads Østberg (Ford) was leading the general classification with 2.7 seconds over Tänak, 13.1 seconds over Hirvonen, 19.5 seconds over Loeb, and 55.1 seconds over Latvala. As soon as the second loop started, a new driver clinched the scratch time: Evgeny Novikov (Ford) beat Latvala by 1.1 seconds, while Østberg entered in third place and retained lead. The mud became a tough obstacle, especially in the Terra Alta mixed surface stage, where some gravel areas were actually very miry. Loeb worked hard to clinch his second scratch time in this rally and is now second in the overall standings, ready to launch an attack on the podium’s top echelon.
Some big names retired amid these changing and low grip conditions: Petter Solberg (Ford), Thierry Neuville (Citroën), Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda) and Martin Prokop (Ford) went off-track in stage 2, and Dani Sordo (Mini) and Daniel Oliveira (Ford) succumbed to the same fate in stage 3. Evgeny Novikov (Ford) and Chris Atkinson (Mini, with a damaged power steering) pulled off in Terra Alta. Sébastien Ogier (Skoda Fabia) withdrew with mechanical troubles in the road section before the Salou stage, when he was 6th overall.
Uncertainty was the name of the game early in the day, with quite a bit of reshuffling on the top of the leaderboard: Latvala was first after SS1, Tänak after SS2, and Østberg after SS3 but then stayed there all the way to the end of the day. Scratch times ended in the hands of as much as six different drivers: Loeb (2), Latvala (1), Ostberg and Tänak (1, joint), Novikov (1), and Hirvonen (1).
The final stage of the day was held on a mixed surface 2 km urban circuit in Salou. Hundreds of fans witnessed Mikko Hirvonen conquer this spectacular stage raced against the backdrop of the beach and the sea. Tänak and Latvala finished second and third, while Loeb was only 7th. Østberg was 4th and builds his lead in the 48th RallyRACC edition.
The battle for the support series
Fierce rivalry extends to the support series, where Craig Breen leads the SWRC for Ford with a remarkable 6th overall place, followed by Per-Gunnar Andersson (Proton). Spaniard Yeray Lemes (Mitsubishi) provisionally led the Production series but was subsequently outdone by Marcos Ligato (Subaru). Local driver José Antonio Suárez leads the WRC Academy classification.
The second and longest day of the rally is scheduled for tomorrow and will fully develop over tarmac, with three repeated stages: La Mussara (20.48 km), El Priorat (45.97 km) and Riba-roja d’Ebre (14.20 km), adding as much as 161.30 timed kilometres.
Provisional RallyRACC overall standings after day 1
1-Mads Østberg -Jonas Andersson (Ford Fiesta RS WRC), 1h41:32.4
2-Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena (Citroën DS3 WRC), +27,2
3-Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (Ford Fiesta RS WRC), +47,0
4-Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen (Citroën DS3 WRC), +1:02.6
5-Ott Tänak-Kuldar Sikk (Ford Fiesta RS WRC), + :10.8
6-Craig Breen-Paul Nagle (Ford Fiesta S2000), +6:00.9
7-Hans Weijs-Bjorn Degant (Citroën DS3 WRC), +6:08.5
8-Jarkko Nikara-Jarkko Kalliolepo (Mini John Cooper Works WRC), +9:00.0
9-Per Gunnar Andersson-Emil Axelsson (Proton Satria Neo S2000), +9:42.4
10-Evgeny Novikov-Ilka Minor (Ford Fiesta RS WRC), +10:59.5