Barcelona: The 54th RallyRACC starts with Ogier-Ingrassia (Ford) on top

25/10/2018

· The rally opened today with a special street stage in Barcelona, with a 25,000 strong-crowd
· Action begun this morning with the Shakedown
· Fridays' program includes six gravel special stages

The second-to-last WRC round, based in the holiday town of Salou, kicked off this morning with the Shakedown raced in Emprius, close to PortAventura World, where the rally service park and organization are headquartered. Over 25,000 motorsports fans cheered the teams participating in the 12th event of the season, with current championship leader Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul rolling his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC early in the morning. Neuville completed a single loop instead of the intended four, and his car was extracted by a rescue vehicle fortunately with only bodyshell damage.

The Shakedown is simply used for drivers to check that the car is properly set up, but results does not add up in the overall standings. Even so, Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) managed the fastest time on 1:34.9 seconds on his third run. Jari-Matti Latvala/Mikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) and Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) completed the top three, on 1:35.2 and 1:35.7 seconds.

At 13.15 hours, the 70 authorised vehicles went through the podium located in Salou's waterfront, and headed to Barcelona, where the inaugural street stage was raced in the Montjuïc area. After one year of absence, the RallyRACC visited the Catalan capital for the fourth time ever. In a fabulous atmosphere and in front of thousands of fans, Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) chose a different tyre strategy and managed a fantastic 3:53.3s result, and pulling a sizeable gap over Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, +3.7s) and Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC, +4.2s). The three of them are engaged in a fierce battle for the world championship title, which could fall in Neuville's hands this very Sunday. Local driver Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio ( Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) finished 7th, 7.5s adrift.

 In the WRC2 series, Jan Kopecký (Škoda) has already secured his maiden World Championship (after his main contender, Pontus Tidemand, confirmed he will not be racing in Australia). Today, Eric Camilli/Benjamin Veillas (Volkswagen) finished 6th overall and clinched the fastest time in this class.

The real rally starts tomorrow, with three repeat stages totalling 144.88 timed kilometres. It will be the longest day of the weekend, with as much as 562.40 kilometres, including the liaison sections. The first two SS in each loop -Gandesa (7.00 km) and Pesells (26.59 km)- are similar to last year's and will be fully raced on gravel. The remaining SS, called La Fatarella-Vilalba, combines asphalt and gravel sections. The first loop is run in the reverse direction of the well-known Terra Alta test included in previous editions, and 12 new kilometres are added towards the end.

The RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2018, is the only mixed surface encounter, with a first day on gravel and two more days on tarmac, and poses a unique challenge to the participants. Drivers will we timed in 331.58 km of the 1,495.73 kilometres they will eventually have to cover in this 18-test event.