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| 2008 Rally Catalunya : WRC Round 12 of 15 : 3rd - 5th October In this issue: 1. Leg 1 Unofficial Leaderboard 3. Event Links 4. Leg 1 Team by Team News 5. Remaining Event Schedule 1. Unofficial Leaderboard 1. S Loeb/D Elena FRA Citroen C4 1hr 10min 11.5sec 2. D Sordo/M Marti ESP Citroen C4 1hr 10min 27.3sec 3. F Duval/P Pivato BEL Ford Focus RS 1hr 10min 52.8sec 4. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 10min 55.6sec 5. P Solberg/P Mills NOR Subaru Impreza 1hr 11min 59.0sec 6. U Aava/K Sikk EST Citroen C4 1hr 12min 12.7sec 7. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 1hr 12min 15.9sec 8. C Atkinson/S Prévot AUS Subaru Impreza 1hr 12min 24.9sec 9. A Mikkelsen/O Floene NOR Ford Focus RS 1hr 12min 36.4sec 10 M Wilson/S Martin GBR Ford Focus RS 1hr 13min 53.6sec 2. Leg News Sébastien Loeb (Citroen) controlled the day by winning all six stages to build a 15.8sec lead over team-mate Dani Sordo, who was second fastest on each stage. Behind the Ford duo, there was little movement on the leaderboard all day. Petter Solberg (Subaru) holds fifth ahead of Urmo Aava (Citroen) while Norway's Andreas Mikkelsen (Ford) lies seventh, having been fifth earlier in the leg. Stobart driver Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) rounds off the top eight. Toni Gardemeister (Suzuki) spun on the opening stage before dropping off the top 10 leaderboard when he lost two minutes with a puncture in the penultimate test. Team-mate Per-Gunnar Andersson (Suzuki) retired on the second stage after crashing into a ditch. The second day of Rally Catalunya takes crews through six stages totalling 127.98 competitive kilometres into the mountains of the Tarragona region to the north west of the Salou service park. The route traces a loop through the airport city of Reus around the Montsant national park and back through Montblanc. More than a quarter of the total stage distance is new, including two entirely new stages in the shape of Les Garrigues and La Llena. The day's opener is the longest of the rally, whilst La Llena is one of the trickiest. 4. Team by Team News BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team enjoyed a solid start to Rally de España to hold third and fourth places following today's opening leg. François Duval and Patrick Pivato, returning to the official Ford line-up for the first time since 2004, lie third in a Focus RS World Rally Car, just 2.8sec ahead of team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen. The equally-matched Ford duo traded places throughout the day and tonight's gap is the widest it has been all day. Duval and Hirvonen swapped places on each test during the morning loop, the 27-year-old Belgian returning to the Salou service park just 2.2sec ahead of Hirvonen. While Duval was happy with his progress, 28-year-old Hirvonen was frustrated at his pace and softened his suspension spring settings for the afternoon loop to try to improve his feeling and increase his speed. Hirvonen was tied for third with Duval after the penultimate stage but Duval had the edge again on the final test. #3 : Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: Hirvonen was happier this afternoon after the changes gave him a more comfortable feeling. "The gap to the leaders was quite large after the first loop," he said. "I didn't feel confident with the car and didn't push as much as I knew I could so I talked with my engineers to see how we could find more speed. We changed to softer suspension springs, closer to the set-up I had for Rallye Deutschland in August. I prefer a softer set-up with more grip, that's my natural feeling, so I had more confidence and my times were closer to the leaders. It's not possible to make big changes to the car because then I would end up compromising in other areas. "I had a good battle with François, and I'm sure it will be the same tomorrow, but I can't say I enjoyed the day. The morning was disappointing which I didn't expect. After the test in Spain last week I felt excited as everything felt good and I thought I'd made a good step in the right direction. I was happier this afternoon and I hope we can do some magic tonight," he added. #4 : Francois Duval/Patrick Pivato: "I'm happy, although I struggled for grip in places this morning," said Duval. "These stages were new to me so I made many changes to my pace notes during the first pass. There was a lot of gravel on the road because cars ahead were cutting corners and it was slippery. As a result I dropped too many seconds to the leaders but I feel confident with the car and it's a good feeling to be back in the Ford team again. "Tomorrow should be better for me because the roads are twistier. I plan to attack hard tomorrow. Mikko is very close behind me and he will push hard also, so I have no alternative," added Duval. #19 : Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr: Abu Dhabi's Khalid Al Qassimi and Michael Orr completed all six stages but retired from 15th place during the liaison section after the last test. "I felt I had driven well on the previous stage but the time wasn't good so we decided to go for a big push on the last test," said Al Qassimi. "Unfortunately I had a big spin and the car ended in a ditch. I got out it out and finished the stage but the differential began to make a noise on the road section. It got progressively worse and I had to stop. It's disappointing but I will restart tomorrow under SupeRally rules." Citroen Total World Rally Team http://citroen.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=1 The extremely windy first day of the 2008 RallyRACC Catalunya-Costa Daurada has ended with Citroën Sport's two cars in first and second places. The French squad's two crews dominated throughout and produced one-two finishes on all six stages at the wheel of their respective C4 WRCs. Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena top this evening's provisional leaderboard, 15.8 seconds clear of team-mates Dani Sordo/Marc Martí. The opening leg's two identical loops of three stages were based to the north of Salou and totalled 131.76km of competitive action. At respectively 20.48, 21.26 and 24.14 kilometres in length, they were ideally suited to pulling out big gaps. Meanwhile, the rain clouds being monitored by Citroën's technical partner Météo France Sports were blown out to sea by the strong winds and the action took place entirely in bright, sunny weather. #1 : Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: As conditions dried, the two C4 WRCs went into the morning's loop on hard compound Pirelli Pzero tyres, and the times they posted suggest that this was the correct call. "Given the cold, dry conditions, we knew the hard compound would take time to get up to working temperature, so I pushed hard from the start," reported Sébastien at the lunchtime break. "We immediately settled into a good, fast pace and, because we were running first on the road, we also benefited from a clean road. That meant we could take the ideal lines without doing too much corner cutting, which reduced the risk of picking up a puncture. We've pulled out a handy gap, but it isn't big enough yet. We'll see how the stages are second time round…" Despite the fact that the same three stages were repeated in the afternoon, the conditions didn't deteriorate as much as they have tended to in past years, since the drivers have much less of a tendency to cut the apexes. Given that Sébastien is only moderately fond of this technique, he was delighted to be able to use the whole road… and nothing but the road: "It was only a little bit dirtier than the first pass," observed the winner of the last three Catalunya Rallies. "We consequently continued at the same quick pace to try to increase our lead. My car has handled perfectly all day and we didn't make any mistakes, so we will try to make sure things stay that way tomorrow!" #2 : Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti: "I had a bit of trouble finding the ideal pace," commented Dani Sordo. "I didn't feel 100% confident with the hard compound tyre and I slightly modified the way I drove in order to profit as much as possible from the potential of my C4. This good start is exactly what we were hoping for. We aren't far behind Seb and we've succeeded in gradually pulling clear of our chasers. How this afternoon unfolds will depend on the conditions, but my aim is to keep on pushing." Subaru World Rally Team http://subaru.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=5 The second asphalt rally for the fledgling Subaru Impreza WRC2008 got off to a demanding start today on the first day of RallyRACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada. With the FIA regulations only allowing limited testing, the team arrived in Spain having done very little running on asphalt and therefore started the rally with realistic expectations. With the morning's stages completed and a change to hard compound tyres for the afternoon, Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson improved their times markedly on the repeat passes in the afternoon, by which time the temperature had risen significantly. Solberg and Phil Mills climbed from eighth to fifth, whilst Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot rose to eighth overall. Brice Tirabassi and Fabrice Gordon continued their steady and impressive progress, improving their speed as their confidence grew. #5 : Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: "The soft tyres didn't work for us this morning and we lost a lot of time, but I felt more comfortable on the second two stages" said Petter Solberg. "This afternoon we were faster but the car actually felt harder to drive on the hard tyres. It was moving around a lot more on them, especially under braking, so maybe we'll go back." #6 : Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: "We started cautiously as I didn't have a good feeling in the car, but this afternoon was definitely better" said Chris Atkinson. "I had to back off in the last stage this morning, but this afternoon it felt better and I could push more. It's just a shame we lost so much time this morning. That's really set us back. It'll be tough tomorrow as there are lots of new roads, but we've got to look at it as another day and hope we keep moving in this direction." Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 Day one of RallyRACC Catalunya sees both Stobart VK M-Sport Ford crews inside the points after a problem-free day's driving from the pair. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila lead the charge in seventh position while Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin lie in 10th and in a points position in the Manufacturers' standings. Latvala began his performance in a cautious frame of mind after three consecutive mistakes during the last three WRC rounds. The Finn tried to find a good feeling on the Spanish asphalt but, without a pre-event test, needed some time to adjust back to sealed surface driving. #7 : Jari-Matti Latvala/Mikko Antilla: "We started off slowly today as my confidence was low after the results from the last rallies but things got better during the day. We made some positive changes at the midday Service and the rear of the car felt much better and more balanced this afternoon. I'm starting to understand the tyres better now so it will good to build on this tomorrow. The stages tomorrow are more enjoyable than today, more twisty and flowing. Today was quite narrow in places with a lot of straights." #8 : Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin: I played around with the set-up today and made some good improvements with the damper clicks. We didn't get an opportunity to test before this rally so it just takes a stage or two to get things right. We are halfway there and will try some more tomorrow to make the balance even better. It's been a productive day, we are in a points position for the team and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's stages." Suzuki World Rally Team http://suzuki.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=12 The Rally de España - which is the first 'real' asphalt event of the season - got underway with six stages today, split into two loops of three speed tests with service in between at Port Aventura, Europe's largest theme park, to the south of Barcelona. At the end of another challenging day, Toni Gardemeister has brought his SX4 WRC home in 17th overall. The Finn picked up a front-right puncture on the penultimate stage of the leg, which caused him to lose two and a half minutes. Nonetheless, he still has the chance to claim points over the two long days that remain in Spain. His team mate P-G Andersson unfortunately went off the road on the second special stage of the day, having set a top-10 time on SS1. His SX4 WRC was undamaged and he will re-start tomorrow under the super rally system, with a penalty of five minutes for every stage missed. #11 : Toni Gardemeister/Tomi Tuominen: "After I heard about P-G's off on the second stage, I just drove carefully to the end of the morning's loop of stages. During service at midday I made a few changes and the car definitely felt better but we didn't really get the chance to show it as we caught a puncture 10 kilometres into SS5. We continued to the end and then changed the wheel for the last stage, but we had already lost two and a half minutes." #12 : Per-Gunnar Andersson/Jonas Anderss"What happened on the second stage was my fault. We were just too quick approaching a left-hand corner about two kilometres from the end because my notes were a bit optimistic. We almost got round the corner but then we had a lot of understeer at the exit and went off down a steep bank. The car had no damage at all, but the bank was too steep to drive back up. It's a pity, but at least we have the chance to start again tomorrow."on: 5. Remaing Event Schedule Saturday 4 October: Day 2 Salou - Salou Serv C PortAventura (15 mins) 07.30 SS7 El Priorat / La Ribera d'Ebre 1 38.27km 08.44 SS8 Les Garrigues 1 8.60km 09.57 SS9 La Llena 1 17.12km 10.28 Serv D PortAventura (30 mins) 12.18 SS10 El Priorat / La Ribera d'Ebre 2 38.27km 13.47 SS11 Les Garrigues 2 8.60km 15.00 SS12 La Llena 2 17.12km 15.31 Serv E PortAventura (45 mins) 17.11 Finish PortAventura 17.56 Total 127.98km Sunday 5 October: Day 3 Salou - Salou Serv F PortAventura (15 mins) 07.15 SS13 Riudecanyes 1 16.32km 08.05 SS14 Santa Marina 1 26.51km 09.06 SS15 La Serra d'Almos 1 4.11km 10.02 Serv G PortAventura (30 mins) 10.56 SS16 Riudecanyes 2 16.32km 12.01 SS17 Santa Marina 2 26.51km 13.02 SS18 La Serra d'Almos 2 4.11km 13.58 Serv H PortAventura (10 mins) 14.47 Finish Passeig Jaume 1, Salou 15.07 Total 93.88km Rally total 353.62km |