Rally Catalonia 2011

 Rally Catalonia 2011

Racing data
12th of 13 races in the 2011 World Rally Championship
Surname:	47è Rally RACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada
Date:	21-23 October 2011
Begin:	Salou
Exams:	18 tests over 406.52 km
Distance:	1589.9 km
Covering:	Asphalt and gravel
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën World Rally Team
Second:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Jari-Matti Latvala Ford World Rally Team

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena in the Citroën DS3 WRC

The 2011 Rally Catalonia , officially 47è Rally RACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada , was the twelfth round of the 2011 World Rally Championship and also a round of the 2011 Super 2000 World Rally Championship and the 2011 Production World Rally Championship . The Catalonia Rally took place for the 47th time in 2011 and was held from October 21 to 23 in the province of Tarragona on the Costa Daurada .

background

A special feature of the Rally Catalonia was the competition on different road surfaces. While mostly gravel roads were driven on the first day, the rally took place on paved roads on the following two days. The program consisted of 18 special stages over 406.52 kilometers. The paddock was in Salou . 58 vehicles started the rally.

Before the rally, the three leaders were close together in the points classification and had almost equal chances for the world championship title. Citroën works driver Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen in Ford service were tied at the top of the table with 196 points each. Loeb's team-mate Sébastien Ogier was only three points behind.

The Rally Catalonia was the last round of the season for the Super 2000 World Rally Championship. The championship was decided at this event between Juho Hänninen , Ott Tänak and Martin Prokop . Before the start, Hänninen had 108 SWRC points on his account, Tänak 105 and Prokop 91.

Reports

Day 1 (Friday, October 21)

The first special stages were mostly on gravel roads. Dust hanging in the air caused visibility problems among the drivers. That's why the organizers sent the vehicles out on the track every three minutes instead of the usual two minutes. Sébastien Loeb , who had to start first, was able to profit from his starting position, which was advantageous in this case. On SS1 he was 7.4 seconds faster than the runner-up and took the lead in the rally. To deal with the vision problems, Kris Meeke chose an unusual strategy: he deliberately appeared one minute late for the start of SS1 and received ten penalty seconds for it. In return, however, he had a greater distance from the vehicle in front and thus a better view. Already on the particularly dusty SS1, Petter Solberg hit a concrete block with his vehicle. He damaged the front left wheel suspension so badly that he could not continue driving. Ken Block and SWRC title candidate Ott Tänak also had an accident at the same point . Kimi Räikkönen was canceled on SS3 because of problems with the fuel supply. Until the lunch break after SS3, Loeb had a lead of 5.3 seconds over his closest rival, Jari-Matti Latvala . Sébastien Ogier , with best times on SS2 and SS3, moved up to 11.9 seconds and was now in third place, while Mikko Hirvonen was already more than half a minute behind.

In the afternoon the dust had largely settled. Latvala set two fastest times and took the overall lead. On SS5, Ogier suffered a tire damage and a subsequent wheel change for over a minute and a half. SS6 was held in the dark, which, in combination with the dust that was blown up, caused additional difficulty. Latvala suffered a self-inflicted tire damage on the asphalt section of this stage and he lost over 46 seconds. The lead went back to Loeb, who was clearly the fastest on this stage. After the first day of the rally, Loeb was 30.6 seconds ahead of Latvala. Hirvonen was 54.2 seconds behind and Ogier in fourth was already 1: 45.3.

Day 2 (Saturday, October 22nd)

The second stage on Saturday consisted exclusively of asphalt tests. There, on the first few kilometers of the first special stage, Loeb showed who the asphalt specialist is. He increased his lead second by second only to manage his lead for the rest of the rally. On SS7, the opening stage of the day, Sébastien Ogier suffered another tire damage, which set him back another minute and a half. Mikko Hirvonen dropped out for over 25 seconds and increasingly lost contact with the leaders. Sébastien Loeb broke the record of winning special stages with a best time on SS8; it was his 802. Jari-Matti Latvala, who is actually known as a gravel specialist, had received the order from Ford to “take full risk” in order to exert as much pressure on Loeb as possible, he was able to keep his deficit on Loeb roughly the same. He went into the lunch break 32.8 seconds behind after SS9. In the afternoon Latvala set two more best times and reduced his deficit to 27.6 seconds. Hirvonen was clearly beaten in third with 1: 51.8 minutes. Behind him, Daniel Sordo was gradually making up ground, but at the end of the day there were still almost 40 seconds separating him from Hirvonen.

3rd day (Sunday, October 23rd)

The first special stages of the third stage brought almost no changes at the top of the overall standings. Sordo had a puncture on SS14 that cost him almost 30 seconds and thus his chances of third. During the lunch break, Loeb continued to lead in front of Latvala. Sébastien Ogier, who was now only just behind Daniel Sordo in fifth, retired on SS17 with engine failure. As expected, Jari-Matti Latvala then accepted a 2-minute time penalty in order to give way to his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen, who was better placed in the drivers' standings. On the rainy power stage at the end of the rally, the mini works team benefited from a tactically smart choice of tires. Thus Kris Meeke and Sordo got the bonus points before Loeb. Loeb finally won by over two minutes over Hirvonen and Latvala. Juho Hänninen won the SWRC classification and made himself SWRC world champion. 44 vehicles were rated.

With his victory, Sébastien Loeb put himself in the best position in the battle for the world championship ahead of the 2011 Rally Wales , the last round of the season. Mikko Hirvonen was slightly eight points behind, but remained within striking distance. Sébastien Ogier had no more chances of winning the world title after his retirement. This meant that Rally Wales would amount to a duel between Loeb and Hirvonen.

Classifications

Bottom line

rank	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points + power stage
WRC
01	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën DS3 WRC	4: 05: 39.3		25 + 1
02	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 07: 46.2	02: 06.9	18th
03	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 08: 11.7	02: 32.4	15th
04th	Daniel Sordo	Carlos Del Barrio	Mini John Cooper Works WRC	4: 09: 03.4	03: 24.1	12 + 2
05	Kris Meeke	Paul Nagle	Mini John Cooper Works WRC	4: 10: 54.3	05: 15.0	10 + 3
06th	Mads Østberg	Jonas Andersson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 11: 33.5	05: 54.2	08th
07th	Evgeny Novikov	Denis Giraudet	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 15: 11.1	09: 31.8	06th
08th	Henning Solberg	Ilka Minor	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 15: 19.4	09: 40.1	04th
09	Dennis Kuipers	Frédéric Miclotte	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 16: 53.1	11: 13.8	02
10	Juho Hänninen	Mikko Markkula	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 19: 28.5	13: 49.2	01
SWRC
01 (10)	Juho Hänninen	Mikko Markkula	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 19: 28.5		25th
02 (11)	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Ford Fiesta S2000	4: 19: 43.4	00: 14.9	18th
03 (13)	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Ford Fiesta S2000	4: 20: 26.2	00: 57.7	15th
04 (15)	Craig Breen	Gareth Roberts	Ford Fiesta S2000	4: 21: 48.7	02: 20.2	12
05 (18)	Hermann Gassner junior	Timo Gottschalk	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 24: 30.6	05: 02.1	10
06 (27)	Ott Tanak	Estonia Kuldar Sikk	Ford Fiesta S2000	4: 49: 41.2	30: 12.7	08th
07 (28)	Karl Kruuda	Martin Järveoja	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 50: 29.9	31: 01.4	06th
08 (40)	Albert Llovera	Diego Vallejo	Abarth Grande Punto S2000	5: 12: 07.6	52: 39.1	04th
PWRC
01 (21)	Patrik Flodin	Göran Bergsten	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4: 29: 40.7		25th
02 (22)	Michał Kościuszko	Maciej Szczepaniak	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	4: 29: 42.7	00: 02.0	18th
03 (24)	Benito Guerra	Borja Rozada	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	4: 39: 26.2	09: 45.5	15th
04 (29)	Bader Al Jabri	Stephen McAuley	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	4: 50: 47.3	21: 06.6	12
05 (30)	Oleksandr Saliuk jun	Pavlo Cherepin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 52: 48.0	23: 07.3	10
06 (31)	Nicolás Fuchs	Cándido Carerra	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	4: 53: 58.4	24: 17.7	08th
07 (32)	Valeriy Gorban	Andrey Nikolayev	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 55: 48.4	26: 07.7	06th
08 (34)	Hayden Paddon	John Kennard	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	5: 01: 04.1	31: 23.4	04th
09 (35)	Ukraine Oleksiy Kikireshko	Sergey Larens	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	5: 06: 47.2	37: 06.5	02
10 (36)	Martin Semerád	Michal Ernst	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	5: 07: 04.3	37: 23.6	01

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Bonus points for placement on the Power Stage .

Special stages

Day	WP number	begin	WP name	length	WP winner	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 (October 21)	WP1	08:43	Pesells 1	25.74 km	Sébastien Loeb	15: 18.7	100.86 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
	WP2	09:51	Terra Alta 1	35.94 km	Sébastien Ogier	23: 49.4	090.52 km / h
	WP3	11:29	Les Garrigues 1	18.50 km	Sébastien Ogier	13: 14.7	083.81 km / h
	WP4	16:42	Pesells 2	25.74 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	14: 42.2	105.04 km / h	Jari-Matti Latvala
	WP5	17:50	Terra Alta 2	35.94 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	23: 19.4	092.46 km / h
	WP6	19:28	Les Garrigues 2	18.50 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 14.5	083.83 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
Day 2 (October 22nd)	WP7	09:40	El Priory 1	45.97 km	Sébastien Loeb	25: 35.9	107.75 km / h
	WP8	11:08	Riba-roja d'Ebre 1	12.27 km	Sébastien Loeb	08: 06.9	090.72 km / h
	WP9	11:33	Punta de les Torres 1	13.53 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	07: 05.7	114.42 km / h
	WP10	14:48	El Priory 2	45.97 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	25: 39.1	107.53 km / h
	WP11	16:16	Riba-roja d'Ebre 2	12.27 km	Daniel Sordo	08: 12.3	089.73 km / h
	WP12	16:41	Punta de les Torres 2	13.53 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	07: 04.2	114.82 km / h
Day 3 (October 23)	WP13	07:02	Santa Marina 1	26.51 km	Sébastien Ogier	15: 55.3	099.90 km / h
	WP14	08:22	La Mussara 1	20.48 km	Mikko Hirvonen	11: 13.6	109.45 km / h
	WP15	09:12	Coll de la Teixeta 1	04.32 km	Sébastien Loeb	02: 37.0	099.06 km / h
	WP16	11:39	Santa Marina 2	26.51 km	Sébastien Ogier	15: 37.9	101.75 km / h
	WP17	12:59	La Mussara 2	20.48 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	11: 09.6	110.11 km / h
	WP18	14:11	Coll de la Teixeta 2	04.32 km	Kris Meeke	02: 45.7	093.86 km / h

Web links

Commons : Rallye Catalonia 2011  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official WRC website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Petter Solberg already out (Rallye-Magazin.de on October 21, 2011)
2. ↑ SS1-3: Loeb with first tour in Spain (Motorsport-Total.com on October 21, 2011)
3. ↑ SS4-6: Loeb keeps a cool head (Motorsport-Total.com on October 21, 2011)
4. ↑ SS7-9: Loeb increases its lead (Motorsport-Total.com on October 22, 2011)
5. ↑ SS10-12: Loeb continues on course for victory (Motorsport-Total.com on October 22, 2011)
6. ↑ SS13-15: Loeb holds the lead (Motorsport-Total.com on October 23, 2011)
7. ↑ Minis weatherman triumphs (Rallye-Magazin.de on October 23, 2011)
8. ↑ Seventh victory for Loeb in Spain (Motorsport-Total.com on October 23, 2011)
9. ↑ Hänninen celebrates World Championship title in the S-WRC (Motorsport-Total.com on October 24, 2011)