WRC: Back To The Asphalt!

Welcome to WRC Spain, one of the quickest rallies of the season—its smooth-surfaced roads and sweeping corners make it very much like the F1 on city streets. The rally, based south of Barcelona in Salou features 18 stages with over 200 kilometers of competitive sealed-surface racing. Sebastien Loeb has won here in previous years and once again dominated this time around. His margin was almost 30 seconds over his teammate, who was trailing him in second place. More…

The pursuing Fords of Francois Duval and Mikko Hirvonen couldn’t match the pace and speed of the two winning Citroens. Yes I said Francois Duval—amazingly, he didn’t crash this time out. Francois was put in for the next two rallies as his expertise on asphalt could help put the Ford team back on top in the manufacturers’ championship. It was an interesting result for Duval as he had climbed to 3rd by 18 seconds ahead of his teammate Mikko, but on the final day, team boss Malcolm Wilson asked Duval to slow to let Mikko take 3rd to get the most driver points possible.

It was another great weekend for Subaru with their new Impreza, and it’s great to see the Subaru camp back in the points and standings. Granted, they aren’t right up there yet, but it’s a new car and there is still a lot to be learned for the team.

Suzuki had a great weekend as this was their first real asphalt rally with the SX4. Toni Gardemeister placed 13th and P. G. Anderson finished 32nd, which may not sound great, but it was a decent finish for their second outing on asphalt. They can now take all of this knowledge and apply it to the Tour De Course coming up this weekend in France. P. G. may have finished better if an off on the second day of the first stage didn’t hamper his cause. A wrong pace note sent him sliding down a bank and unable to return to the road. His car unharmed and was able to continue on the next day.

Stay tuned this weekend for the Tour De Course.