The 12th stop of the 2007 WRC campaign is in Spain for the Rallye RACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada. This will be the first of back-to-back weekends on tarmac (followed up by Corsica) and will go a long way to determining the 2007 championships. Defending world champion Sébastien Loeb is the king of sealed surfaces and looks to make it 3 consecutive Spanish conquests. More importantly, he needs to take advantage and close the 10 point gap to current points leader Marcus Grönholm.
Spain has been included in the WRC Drivers Championship 15 times, dating back to the 1991 season. It was rotated to 2-Litre status for 1994. The Rally has been known by 3 slightly different names:
Rally Catalunya – Costa Brava (1991-2002)
Rallye Catalunya Costa Brava - Rallye de España (2003-2004)
Rally de Catalunya - Costa Daurada (2005-2006)
Debut WRC wins in Spain:
Armin Schwarz (GER) – 1991 in Toyota Celica GT-Four
Philippe Bugalski (FRA) – 1999 in Citroën Xsara Kit Car
Notable WRC debuts in Spain:
Luís Climent (ESP) – 1991 in Opel Corsa GSI (retired)
Fabio Frisiero (ITA) – 2000 in Renault Clio Williams (finished 47th)
Oriol Gómez (ESP) – 1992 in Peugeot 309 GTI (finished 21st)
Daniel Sordo (ESP) – 2003 in Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII (finished 18th)
For complete list of Winners and Historical Stats click here.
Did You Know?
Loeb is not the only Frenchman with success on the asphalt of Catalunya; François Delecour, Didier Auriol (twice), Philippe Bugalski, and Gilles Panizzi (twice) have also tasted victory in Spain. The French have won more than half the WRC events held here, including 7 of the last 9. The only two to break that trend both drove Fords – Markko Märtin in 2003 and the late Colin McRae in 2000. Loeb has history on his side, but so do the non-French Ford drivers Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen.
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