06/10/2007
Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) controls RallyRACC 2nd leg, Dani Sordo was second

Sébastien Loeb (Citroën)

Today, in the 43 movistar RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, the leg 2 has been held in a hard and selective route without any important changes, keeping the competitiveness in each category. The Citroën Total team, with Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo-Marc Martí, controlled the situation ahead their rivals, the Ford Focus of Grönholm-Rautiainen and Hirvonen-Lehtinen. Grönholm has clinched 4 scratches whereas Loeb and Sordo have increased 2 each. The race has received: the Automobiles Citroën general manager, Gilles Michel, and the Ford Europa chairman, John Fleming.

This morning, the presence of moisture in the road has been a problem for the drivers. Grönholm (Ford) started the leg with a scratch in Vilaplana. Loeb (Citroën) and the Finn were doing a duel with the second best time of the race in Margalef-La Palma d'Ebre. This amazing duel, Loeb vs Grönholm, finished with a scratch of the Spanish Dani Sordo (Citroën) who clinched his second best time of the race in the short stage of La Serra d'Almos, repeating the second run in Coll del Grau. The Ford Focus have continued being under Citroëns C4 pressure. Anyway, the Focus nº 3 has clinched the best time at the second run in Vilaplana, whereas the Citroën nº 2 won Margalef 2 and the World Championship leader won in La Serra d'Almos 2, seven tenths ahead Xevi Pons (Subaru), who set the best timing of the RallyRACC this year.

In the Junior category, after the close leadership at the end of the first leg, the Swedish Per-Gunnar Andersson (Suzuki), the Estonian Urmo Aava's team mate, has led the second leg after a flat tyre in Coll del Grau. In that stage and in that category, the Spanish Yeray Lemes (Citroën) has clinched the best time.

"We are very happy about how things are going this year in Rally RACC. Today, a crowd of spectators have attend at one of the top-level races. Moreover, the Service Area and the PortAventura Village are full of activities for all ages. We can't ask for more", said the director of the race, Arman Barfull.

Tomorrow, on the third and last leg we'll see a short sprint of 58,66 kms speed divided in four SS. The stage will start at 7.30 am. from PortAventura and will finish at Salou's podium at 14.50 pm.

Leg 2 Overall Classification of the 43 movistar RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España
1. Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (F-MC/Citroën C4 WRC) - 2h 30'45.5
2. Daniel Sordo/Marc Martí (E/Citroën C4 WRC) - a 12"9
3. Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen (FIN/Ford Focus RS WRC 2007) - a 43"6
4. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (FIN/Ford Focus RS WRC 2007) - a 1'12"5
5. François Duval/Patrick Pivato (B/Citroën Xsara WRC) - a 1'58"1
6. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (N-GB/Subaru Impreza WRC 2007) - a 2'31"7
7. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/Ford Focus RS WRC 2006) - a 2'58"6
8. Chris Atkinson/Stéphane Prévot (AUS-B/Subaru Impreza WRC2007) - a 3'27"2
9. Xevi Pons/Xavier Amigo (E/Subaru Impreza WRC2007) - a 4'19"0
10. Hening Solberg/Cato Menkerud (N/Ford Focus RS WRC 2006) - a 8'04"0