Rally Catalonia 2007

 Rally Catalonia 2007

Racing data
12th of 16 races in the 2007 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Catalonia
Date:	5th-7th October 2007
Begin:	Salou
Exams:	18 tests over 352.87 km
Distance:	1359.96 km
Covering:	asphalt
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Second:	Dani Sordo Citroën Total World Rally Team
Third:	Marcus Grönholm Ford Abu Dhabi WRT

The 43rd Rally of Catalonia (also known as Rally Spain / Catalonia) was the twelfth of 16 FIA World Championship races in 2007. The rally consisted of 18 special stages and was held between October 5th and 7th.

Loeb / Elena (Citroën C4 WRC) at the 2007 Catalonia Rally

Race report

Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) had already taken the lead in the overall standings on Friday evening, ahead of teammate Dani Sordo with a lead of 13.8 seconds. The leader in the drivers' world championship, Marcus Grönholm (Ford), was third, 44.2 seconds behind Loeb. This enabled Loeb to shorten his gap to Grönholm in the drivers' standings to six points. The preliminary decision was made on Friday evening in the sixth special stage. At the start of the test, a strong thunderstorm hit the site. Grönholm lost half a minute on the Citroën duo in heavy rain. He finished Friday more than 50 seconds behind. Grönholm was unable to catch up, although he was the fastest driver in the rally on Saturday and Sunday.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 22: 50.5		10
2	Daniel Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 23: 04.3	00: 13.8	8th
3	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 28: 46.6	00: 39.8	6th
4th	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 23: 30.3	01: 25.8	5
5	François Duval	Patrick Pivato	Citroën Xsara WRC	3: 24: 16.3	02: 28.7	4th
6th	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 25: 19.2	02: 54.1	3
7th	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Antilla	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 25: 44.6	03: 38.2	2
8th	Chris Atkinson	Stéphane Prévot	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 26: 28.7	04: 22.4	1
JWRC
1 (15)	Per-Gunnar Andersson	Jonas Andersson	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 44: 24.5	21: 34.0	10
2 (17)	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Citroën C2 S1600	3: 44: 58.4	22: 07.9	8th
3 (18)	Urmo Aava	Kuldar Sikk	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 45: 04.4	22: 13.9	6th
4 (22)	Jozef Béreš jun.	Petr Starý	Renault Clio S1600	3: 48: 03.9	25: 13.4	5
5 (24)	Conrad Rautenbach	David Sr.	Citroën C2 S1600	3: 49: 24.3	26: 33.8	4th
6 (26)	Jaan Mölder Jr.	Katrin Becker	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 53: 24.0	30: 33.5	3
7 (30)	Aaron Burkart	Michael Koelbach	Citroën C2 S1600	3: 55: 04.1	32: 13.6	2
8 (32)	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	Citroën C2 R2	3: 57: 03.4	34: 12.9	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	Start CET	WP name	length	driver	automobile	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 Oct 5th	WP1	08:21	Querol 1	25.43 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	13: 57.1	109.4 km / h	Marcus Grönholm
	WP2	09:09	El Montmell 1	24.14 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	12: 56.4	111.9 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP3	12:46	Querol 2	25.43 km	François Duval	Citroën Xsara WRC	13: 48.5	110.5 km / h
	WP4	13:34	El Montmell 2	24.14 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	12: 31.4	115.7 km / h	Dani Sordo
	WP5	16:48	El Lloar - La Figuera	22.43 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	12: 27.7	108.0 km / h
	WP6	18:00	Pratdip	26.48 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	16: 16.7	97.6 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
Day 2 Oct. 6	WP7	08:43	Villaplana 1	13.29 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	7: 54.4	100.9 km / h
	WP8	09:37	Coll del Grau 1	26.33 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	13: 59.5	112.9 km / h
	WP9	10:16	Margalef - La Palma 1	15.85 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	9: 45.8	97.4 km / h
	WP10	11:21	La Serra d'Almos 1	4.11 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 38.3	93.5 km / h
	WP11	13:22	Villaplana 2	13.29 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	7: 44.1	103.1 km / h
	WP12	14:16	Coll del Grau 2	26.33 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	13: 59.0	113.0 km / h
	WP13	14:55	Margalef - La Palma 2	15.85 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	9: 38.8	98.6 km / h
	WP14	16:00	La Serra d'Almos 2	4.11 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	2: 37.7	93.8 km / h
Day 3 Oct 7	WP15	08:15	Riudecanyes 1	16.32 km	Marcus Grönholm Sébastien Loeb	Ford Focus RS WRC Citroën C4 WRC	10: 19.2	94.9 km / h
	WP16	09:16	Colldejou 1	26.51 km	Dani Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	15: 38.7	101.7 km / h
	WP17	11:59	Riudecanyes 2	16.32 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	10: 15.1	95.5 km / h
	WP18	13:00	Colldejou 2	26.51 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	15: 39.9	101.5 km / h

Source:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Loeb wins Rally Catalonia , accessed on December 30, 2015
2. ↑ ewrc-results.com: 43rd RallyRACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada 2007 , accessed on December 30, 2015

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website