03/09/2008
World Rally Championship: After a one-month break, the Rally de España

44 movistar RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España

After the New Zealand Rally, held last weekend and won by Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena (Citroën), the FIA World Rally Championship starts a one-month break to come back with renewed strength in Spain, from 2 to 5 October, on the occasion of the 44 movistar RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, twelfth of fifteen scoring rounds of the world championship, and also sixth and penultimate round of the Junior World Championship.

Although there are other mathematical options, the 2008 championship title is almost clearly a business between two drivers, Citroën's French driver Sébastien Loeb and Ford's Finnish driver Mirko Hirvonen. There has been a spectacular two-way contest with both drivers so far and although it is the Frenchman who is in the lead, there are four events yet to go and anything can happen.

After a fantastic exhibition at the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, Sébastien Loeb took the leadership of the drivers' championship while Citroën is now on top of the constructor's championship. Citroën's success is in large part also due to the excellent performance of the RACC driver, Daniel Sordo, who finished right behind his team-mate, taking his third podium finish of the season. The new one-two finish of Loeb/Sordo last Sunday in New Zealand clearly reaffirms both leaderships.

In the Junior Championship (drivers of 28 years or less), Frenchman Sébastien Ogier is the current leader, with an advantage of 9 points over Irishman Shaun Gallagher and 10 over Aaron Nikolai Burkart from Germany, all of them at the wheel of a Citroën C2 S1600. The first non-Citroën is on fourth with Michal Kosciuszko from Poland and his Suzuki Swift S1600, 12 points behind the leader. The RallyRACC and the Italy-Sardinia Rally are the only rounds that have been chosen by all of the drivers, meaning that 17 Junior vehicles will be taking part in the Spanish event will, in addition to the possible Guest Drivers admitted by the organization.

Rally Guide 2 to be published on September 5th
The Rally Guide 2 will be published on the event's website www.rallyracc.com next Friday, September 5th. This document will not only be updating its first version, but will also include the latest news for participants with last minute information and all details of the Spanish rally. The entry period was closed on August 28th. All entry forms received, after being checked and approved by the FIA, will be published on the official entry list on September 12th. The document will be also available for download at www.rallyracc.com.

Dani Sordo, the star in Catalonia
The key role played by Dani Sordo in the Citröen Total team is taking shape as the season progresses. Racing side-by-side with the world's number one has obviously certain advantages, but also disadvantages, as explained by Dani himself: "It is obvious that is has both sides, but I think that in my situation it is good to be Sébastien's team-mate. You learn a lot of things, you see how he works, how to set-up the car and it is always a reference to consider. If, in addition, I am able to drive as fast as he does on certain surfaces, so much the better".  Dani will doubtlessly be the star of the Spanish round, an event he is especially fond of and in which he will be the candidate for victory.