2011 Rally Catalunya
The Rally of Catalonia in 2011, officially Rally RACC Catalunya 47E - Costa Daurada, was the twelfth round of the World Rally Championship in 2011 and also a round of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship in 2011 and for Production World Rally Championship 2011 Rally of Catalonia in 2011 was the 47th. time place and was held from 21 to 23 October in the province of Tarragona on the Costa Daurada.
- 3.1 final
- 3.2 stages
Background
A special feature of the Rally of Catalonia was the competition on different road surfaces. During the first day mostly gravel roads have been traveled, the rally was held on the following two days on paved roads. The program consisted of 18 stages covering 406.52 km. The paddock was located in Salou. In order to rally 58 vehicles were launched.
Before the rally, the three leaders in the points classification were close together, and had almost equal chances of winning the world title. Citroën factory driver Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen were in Ford's services, each with 196 points on points at the top of the table. Loeb's team-mate Sébastien Ogier had only three points behind.
The Rally of Catalonia was the last race of the season for the Super 2000 World Rally Championship. The championship decided at this event Juho Hänninen between, Ott Tanak and Martin Prokop. Before starting Hänninen had 108 SWRC points to his credit, Tanak 105 and Prokop 91
Reports
Day 1 ( Friday, October 21 )
The first stages led mainly on gravel roads. In the air suspended dust caused visibility problems among drivers. Therefore, the organizers sent the vehicles at a distance of three minutes instead of the usual two minutes on the track. Sébastien Loeb, who had to start first, beat from his in this case advantageous starting position profit. He was on WP1 equal to 7.4 seconds faster than the second and sat down at the top of the rally. To deal with the visual problems, Kris Meeke chose an unusual strategy: he appeared to intentionally minute late for the start of WP1 and received ten second penalty. But he had a greater distance to the vehicle ahead and so a better view. Already on the very dusty WP1 met Petter Solberg with his car a block of concrete. He damaged the front left suspension so strong that he could not continue. In the same place also injured Ken Block and SWRC title Ott Tanak candidate. Kimi Raikkonen fell on WP3 out because of problems in the fuel supply. By the lunch break after WP3 Loeb held a lead of 5.3 seconds on his closest pursuer, Jari -Matti Latvala. Sébastien Ogier edged with WP2 and WP3 best times to back up to 11.9 seconds, the tip approach and was now in third place, while Mikko Hirvonen already about half a minute had residue.
In the afternoon, the dust had settled as far as possible. Latvala drove two best times and took over the overall lead. Ogier cost to WP5 a puncture with subsequent wheel change over one and a half minutes. WP6 was held in the dark, which caused an additional difficulty in combination with the dust raised. Latvala overtook them, and on the asphalt section of this examination, a self-inflicted puncture and he lost more than 46 seconds. The guide therefore went back to Loeb, who clearly was the fastest on this exam. After the first day of the rally Loeb led 30.6 seconds ahead of Latvala. Hirvonen was 54.2 seconds back in fourth and Ogier already 1:45,3.
Day 2 ( Saturday, October 22 )
In the second leg on Saturday only stood on asphalt stages. There was Loeb, in the first kilometers of the first special stage, who the asphalt specialist. He extended his lead from second by second order then, for the rest of the rally, to manage his lead only. On WP7 as a prelude stage of the day Sébastien Ogier suffered a puncture again, the back threw him another one and a half minutes. Mikko Hirvonen was higher than 25 seconds, and increasingly lost the connection to the top. Sébastien Loeb broke with a best time to WP8 the record of recovered stages; it was his 802 The really as gravel specialist known Jari -Matti Latvala Ford had received the order " full risk to go " to exert as much pressure on Loeb, he was able to keep the gap to Loeb about the same. He walked with a gap of 32.8 seconds after SS9 in the lunch break. In the afternoon, Latvala scored two more personal bests and reduced his deficit to 27.6 seconds. As a third Hirvonen was knocked off significantly with 1:51,8 minutes. Behind him, Daniel Sordo gradually made up ground, it broke at the end of the day but still almost 40 seconds from Hirvonen.
Day 3 ( Sunday, October 23 )
The first stages of the third stage took almost no changes at the top of the overall standings. Sordo began a WP14 on a puncture, the nearly 30 seconds, and thus the chances in third place cost him. For lunch Loeb continued to lead before Latvala. Sébastien Ogier, who was now only just behind Daniel Sordo finished fifth, retired on SS17 with engine failure. Jari -Matti Latvala took then expected, a 2 -minute time penalty in purchase to make its in the drivers' standings better placed team-mate Mikko Hirvonen go first. On the rainy Power Stage at the end of the rally the Mini factory team benefited from a tactically wise tire choice. Thus, Kris Meeke and Sordo brought the bonus points ahead of Loeb. Loeb eventually won with over two minutes ahead of Hirvonen and Latvala. Juho Hänninen won the SWRC standings and thus made himself the SWRC World Champion. 44 vehicles counted.
With his victory Sebastien Loeb brought in front of the Wales Rally GB 2011, the last race of the season in the best position in the battle for the world championship. Mikko Hirvonen was a slight residue of eight points, but remained within striking distance. Sébastien Ogier had after his failure, no more chances of winning the world title. This meant that the rally Wales would amount to a duel between Loeb and Hirvonen.