Day 1: Sébastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia (VW) lead the standings in the first special stage, held in Barcelona

22/10/2015

Following the ceremonial start in Salou at 1 pm, the 81 authorized teams drove their way to Barcelona for the first special stage of the 51 RallyRACC CATALUNYA-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2015. Catalan driver Roger Oto chose the very moment he crossed the podium today for another very personal- ceremony: he climbed out of the car with a ring in his hand and proposed to co-driver Elisabeth Ferrer, who recently overcame a serious disease.

After an autograph signing session with the main drivers and co-drivers, and in front of a strong crowd of eager fans, a historic vehicles motorcade run the 3.20 km special stage laid out at the bottom of Montjuïc hill, in Barcelona, as a preamble to the first official stage which will be raced there for the second consecutive year. Barcelona is hosting the rally start for the fourth time, after having staged the ceremonial start in 2011 and the real start in 2012.

With all the cars' settings ready for tomorrow's gravel stage, Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) climbed to the top of the leaderboard on 3m 37.8s. Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) followed in 2.1s adrift, with Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) third on a 2.9s gap. The local team made up by Daniel Sordo/Marc Martí (Hyundai i20 WRC) concluded 9^th overall, 6.4s slower than the leader. The fastest WRC2 was the Skoda Fabia R5 featuring Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel at the wheel, earning a remarkable 10^th place overall.

Tomorrow, Day 2 of the 51 RallyRACC CATALUNYA-COSTA DAURADA, Rally de España 2015, will see all cars covering 128.60 competitive kilometres and 430.53 km overall. The teams will fight over four repeat stages (three of them on gravel and a fourth on mixed surface), without any service all day long. Only a tyre change is allowed in Ascó after completion of the first loop. Cars will also be allowed to refuel in Gandesa several times throughout the day.

Classification, Day 1
1-Sébastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia (Volkswagen Polo R WRC), 3'37''8
2-Thierry Neuville-Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC), + 2''1
3-Andreas Mikkelsen-Ola Floene (Volkswagen Polo R WRC), + 2''9
4-Kris Meeke-Paul Nagle (Citroën DS3 WRC), a 3''3
5-Robert Kubica-Maciej Szczepaniak (Ford Fiesta RS WRC), + 3''9
6-Mads Otsberg-Jonas Andersson (Citroën DS3 WRC), + 4''7
7-Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (Volkswagen Polo R WRC), + 5''2
8-Hayden Paddon-John Kennard (Hyundai i20 WRC), + 5''4
9-Dani Sordo-Marc Martí (Hyundai i20 WRC), + 6''4
10-Nasser Al-Attiyah-Mathieu Baumel (Skoda Fabia R5), + 6''5