News

WRC Rally Spain throws up mixed surface challenge

The penultimate round of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship, Rally Spain is traditionally run on asphalt, but it’s different this year with drivers tackling gravel roads on the first day. To add an extra challenge, the opening day’s roads are not all gravel: of the three different stages, one is all-dirt and the other two are mixed, with a higher ratio of loose surface roads. The most demanding stage will be the opening 35.94km Terra Alta test which includes frequent changes in surface over three gravel and two asphalt sections.

Rally de España, running from 21 to 24 October, takes place in northern Spain and there’s no doubt that Spanish Citroen driver Dani Sordo is seeking an opportunity to score his first WRC win in front of his home crowd.

While still waiting for official confirmation of their seventh WRC title win secured at the last event in France, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena are first out on the road in their Citroen C4 WRC car and can expect to lose some time as they sweep gravel off the racing line on day one. “If the weather’s dry I think we’ll lose a lot of time by sweeping off the layer of dust on the hard surface,” says Loeb. “In my opinion, Dani Sordo is ideally placed as, being fifth out, he’ll have a clean road in front of him. He can finish the day with a twenty or thirty-second lead. To close such a gap to Dani on asphalt, you have to drive bloody quickly!

Loeb adds: “I’ll be tackling this rally like any other, and it’s not because I’ve won the title that I’ll arrive with my hands in my pockets. I don’t like losing and I’ll also drive for the fun of it. We’ll see how things are shaping up after the first few stages. But it’s obvious that I’m not going to take unnecessary risks.”

Sordo is keeping a cool head. “With the first leg on gravel and the next two on asphalt, it’ll be a very interesting rally and the same goes for the Friday night service park. I’m hoping for a lot from this event and people are hoping for a lot from me! I’m under a little pressure but it’s positive, and frankly I feel more relaxed than in France where I had to score points to help Citroen win the manufacturers’ title. The desire to score my first victory is as strong as ever but it’s far from in the bag.”

Over in the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team camp, the focus is on consolidating Jari-Matti Latvala’s third position in the championship standings. With Citroen privateer Petter Solberg just ten points adrift of Latvala, the Finn won’t want to lose a podium position at this point in the season.

Latvala has his seventh start in Spain and is confident after delivering strong performances on both tarmac and gravel surfaces in recent months. “The roads here are asphalt in its purest sense and resemble a race circuit. I enjoy it more and more and my driving on it has improved. Sunday’s long 42km stage is probably the best asphalt stage I've driven,” says the 25-year-old Finn.

“I’m looking forward to the loose surface stages, although I will need to be careful on the asphalt sections in the first leg. The switches in surface mean a change of rhythm. When the road moves from dirt to asphalt, you need to be as smooth as possible and keep the driving clean and tidy. Braking is more difficult on asphalt with gravel tyres.”

Latvala’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen, also making his seventh Spanish start, claimed his first WRC podium on this rally in 2005. He also claimed third place in both 2008 and 2009.

The 30-year-old Finn says he’s happy with the mixed format. “But I would prefer that individual stages are held on just one surface. A car in gravel set-up is higher off the ground and it will move around a lot on asphalt. The driving is less precise and it will be important to quickly find the limit when the road changes from dirt to asphalt.”

Solberg describes himself as the danger man in Spain, saying the combination of his start position (fourth) on the road allied to his increased confidence aboard his Citroen C4 WRC ensure he starts the event with what he feels is his best chance yet of ending his five-year drought of wins.

Solberg is the only current driver other than Sébastien Loeb to have won an asphalt WRC round, winning the 2003 Tour de Corse on his way to that year’s title with Subaru. While the Spanish rally is not an all-asphalt event, Solberg thinks the mixed surface opening leg could further play into his hands. “If everything works for me, we could be in a very good position at the end of the gravel day.”

Ideally, Solberg wants a dry Friday which will force the four cars ahead of him to sweep the loose gravel off the surface, before a wet weekend which would leave him with the advantage of running at the head of the field on asphalt.
“In France,” said Solberg, “there’s no doubt, Sébastien was in the best place first on the road, he was able to have a clean road while the rest of us had mud in the corners. The cutting [of corners] won’t be so bad in Catalunya, but if it’s wet, it’s still best to be first.”

Other WRC competitors include Khalid Al Qassimi and Michael Orr in the BP Ford team’s third Focus RS WRC on the Abu Dhabi driver’s fourth Spanish start, with four other Focus RS WRCs entered.  Matthew Wilson and Scott Martin are again nominated in the Stobart M-Sport Ford team and are joined in the points-scoring line-up by Monster World Rally Team’s Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino. Argentines Federico Villagra and José Diaz drive for the Munchi's Ford team and Hungarians Frigyes Turán and Gábor Zsiros drive a privately-entered Focus RS WRC.

The Citroën Junior Team starts round 12 of the season with two objectives: sealing third place in the manufacturers’ World Rally Championship title race and allowing Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia to defend their second place in the drivers’ standings. The team’s second Citroën C4 WRC driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Kaj Lindström is already out of the event after being crashed during the pre-event shakedown.

The 2010 FIA Junior World Rally Championship concludes in Spain, with the title fight going down to the wire. For the second time in three years, German driver Aaron Burkart starts the last event of the season with a shot at the title - but this time he arrives at the finale as the favourite. Two years ago, he was up against Frenchman Sébastien Ogier, but he lost that 2008 scrap to a driver who has now won two rounds of the World Rally Championship. Burkart is seven points ahead of title rival Hans Weijs Jr as the last ever round of the junior WRC series is run.

After Spain the WRC head to the traditional final round, Rally Great Britain, which runs from 12 to 14 November. The season finale features New Zealanders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard in their last event as a Pirelli Star Driver.