04/10/2008
RallyRACC, Day 2: The Citroën Total WRT aims for a triple consecutive 1-2

Sébastien Loeb (Citroën). RallyRACC 2008

The 44 movistar RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España, is under the iron grip of Sébastien Loeb, Dani Sordo and Citroën. The two works Ford cars, with François Duval and Mikko Hirvonen at the wheel, are chasing them in this 12 round of the World Rally Championship. The comfortable lead of the French army heralds a third consecutive 1-2, to be added to the ones achieved in Germany and New Zealand.

The long morning stage of El Priorat/La Ribera d’Ebre (38.27km) ended with yet another scratch time for Sébastian Loeb’s collection. In this case, though, he was  not accompanied by another Citroën, as François Duval (Ford) demoted Sordo to third place. The scarce 2.4 second gap between the first three men in the overall leaderboard announced another fast and fiercely fought stage. Hirvonen was 4th, 6.5 seconds further, and the remaining drivers drifted far away from the privileged group.

Les Garrigues stage (8.60km), and then La Llena (17.12km), were another prove of the C4 might. Loeb-Sordo’s 1-2s in both stages gave Citroën full and undisputed command of this round over Ford.

After the midpoint service at PortAventura, the rally crew drove back to the morning stages for a second run. Hirvonen surprisingly beat Loeb by 2 tenths of a second in the long El Priorat/La Ribera d’Ebre stage, but that did not win him a change in the overall standings. The two final stages of the day did not bring any changes either, with scratch times for Loeb and Duval (his first in this race). Thus, the crew reached PortAventura’s service park with a stable classification and the Focus adding some salt to the event.

In the JWRC series, Sébastian Ogier (Citroën) spun off in the final stage and broke the radiator. He finished the stage but not the road section to PortAventura’s service park and, therefore, he has retired. Martin Prokop, from the Czech Republic, on Citroën, took over the lead in the series.

The final stage was neutralized after a crash involving Llovera-Vallejo (Fiat). The two team members were taken to hospital. Finally, N Group leader Juho Hänninen retired with mechanical problems before the start of Stage 6. The current leader in the contest is now Jasper van den Heuvel (Mitsubishi).

The rally closes tomorrow with a third day and three stages that will be tackled for a second time in the afternoon, totaling 93.88km. The most relevant stage will be Santa Marina, with 26.51km.

Overall Classification after Day 2. 44 RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España
1-Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena (Citroën C4 WRC), 2h 22’57”2
2-Daniel Sordo-Marc Martí (Citroën C4 WRC), +27”7
3-François Duval-Patrick Pivato (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), +51”4
4-Mikko Hirvonen-Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Focus RS WRC 2008), +1’04”6
5-Petter Solberg-Phil Mills (Subaru Impreza WRC2008), +3’06”9
6-Urmo Aava-Kuldar Sikk (Citroën C4 WRC), +3’08”3
7-Chris Atkinson-Phil Mills (Subaru Impreza WRC2008), +3’42”7
8-Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (Ford Focus RS WRC 2007), +3’46”1
9-Andreas Mikkelsen-Ola Floenne (Ford Focus RS WRC 2007), +4’17”2
10-Matthew Wilson-Scott Martin (Ford Focus RS WRC 2007), +6’25”8
1st J-WRC: Martin Prokop-Jan Tománek (Citroën C2 S1600)
1st Gr. N: Jasper van den Heuvel-Martine Kolman (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)