Rally Catalonia 2009

 Rally Catalonia 2009

Racing data
11th of 12 races of the 2009 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Spain
Date:	2-4 October 2009
Begin:	Salou
Exams:	18 tests over 353.62 km
Distance:	1299.13 km
Covering:	asphalt
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën World Rally Team
Second:	Daniel Sordo Citroën World Rally Team
Third:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team

Dani Sordo / Marc Martí in the Citroën C4 WRC, manufacturer world champion 2009

The Rally Spain (Catalonia) was the eleventh World Championship round in 2009 . The rally consisted of 18 special stages and was driven between October 2nd and 4th.

Race report

The Citroën drivers Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Sordo dominated the rally right from the start and finished in first and second place. With the double victory, Citroën was able to secure the manufacturer's title early. Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen had no chance of keeping up with the Citroën duo in a total of 18 stages and ended up in third place, 54.1 seconds behind Loeb. Hirvonen was thus able to maintain the lead in the drivers' world championship, but rival Loeb had come within one championship point. Privateer Petter Solberg finished his first rally in the 2008 version of the Citroën C4 WRC in fourth place. Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) was fifth ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford), who had problems setting the pace during the asphalt rally all weekend.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 22: 14.7		10
2	Dani Sordo	Marc Martí	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 22: 26.7	0: 12.0	8th
3	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 23: 08.8	0: 54.1	6th
4th	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 23: 27.1	1: 12.4	5
5	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 23: 56.3	1: 41.6	4th
6th	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 25: 04.5	2: 49.8	3
7th	Matthew Wilson	Scott Martin	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 29: 30.2	7: 15.5	2
8th	Federico Villagra	Jorge Pérez Companc	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 30: 42.8	8: 28.1	1
JWRC
1	Hans Weijs	Bjorn Degandt	Citroën C2 S1600	3: 40: 25.5		10
2	Simone Bertolotti	Luca Celestini	Suzuki Swift S1600	3: 45: 24.6	4: 49.1	8th
3	Jordi Martí	Gabriel Sánchez	Renault Clio RS R3	3: 45: 58.3	6: 22.8	6th
4th	Kevin Abbring	Erwin Mombaerts	Renault Clio RS R3	3: 55: 18.1	15: 02.6	5
5	Aaron Burkart	Michael Koelbach	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 06: 48.5	26: 13.0	4th

Special stages

Day	WP number	WP name	length	WP winner	time	leader
Day 1 (Oct 2nd)	WP1	La Mussara 1	20.48 km	Dani Sordo	11: 33.4	Dani Sordo
	WP2	Que 1	21.26 km	Dani Sordo	11: 22.0
	WP3	El Montmell 1	24.14 km	Dani Sordo	12: 37.6
	WP4	La Mussara 2	20.48 km	Dani Sordo	11: 17.4
	WP5	Querol 2	21.26 km	Sébastien Loeb	11: 17.4
	WP6	El Montmell 2	24.14 km	Sébastien Loeb	12: 34.2
Day 2 (October 3rd)	WP7	El Priorat / La Ribera d'Ebre 1	38.27 km	Sébastien Loeb	21: 44.6	Sébastien Loeb
	WP8	Les Garrigues 1	8.6 km	Sébastien Ogier	5: 05.5
	WP9	La Llena 1	17.12 km	Dani Sordo	9: 38.1	Dani Sordo
	WP10	El Priory / La Ribera d'Ebre 2	38.27 km	Sébastien Ogier	21: 46.1
	WP11	Les Garrigues 2	8.6 km	Sébastien Loeb	5: 06.0
	WP12	La Llena 2	17.12 km	Petter Solberg	9: 49.0	Sébastien Loeb
Day 3 (Oct 4th)	WP13	Riudecanyes 2	16.32 km	Dani Sordo	10: 32.6
	WP14	Santa Marina 1	26.51 km	Petter Solberg	15: 52.3
	WP15	La Serra d'Almos 1	4.11 km	Sébastien Loeb	2: 37.8
	WP16	Riudecanyes 2	16.32 km	Petter Solberg	10: 32.8
	WP17	Santa Marina 2	26.51 km	Petter Solberg	15: 53.9
	WP18	La Serra d'Almos 2	4.11 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	2: 39.5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Citroën celebrates title fiesta , accessed on January 3, 2015

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2009  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website