WRC Rallye de France - Tour de Corse Historical Statistics

This weekend, the WRC will visit the island of Corsica. It has been a part of the WRC since the series’ inception and this year is round 13 of the campaign. Rally de France – Tour de Corse is the back-end of consecutive tarmac rallies. Last week in Spain, defending world champion Sébastien Loeb made it 3 consecutive Spanish conquests and clawed back 4 points in the title chase. Still Ford’s Marcus Grönholm has a 6 point advantage. Also there is drama in the Junior Rally Championship where Per-Gunnar Andersson and Urmo Aava are tied atop the points table with 38 heading into the final JRC event of the season. For complete 2007 points click here.

The Tour de Corse has been included in the WRC Drivers Championship 27 times, dating back to the 1979 season. It was rotated to 2-Litre status for 1996. The Rally has been known by 4 different names:

Tour de Corse – Rallye de France (1979-1999)
V-Rally Tour de Corse – Rally de France (2000)
Playstation Rally of France – Tour de Corse (2001-2002)
Rallye de France – Tour de Corse (2003-2006)

Debut WRC wins in France:

Jean-Pierre Nicolas (FRA) – 1973 in Alpine-Renault A110 1800
Bruno Saby (FRA) – 1986 in Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2
Bernard Béguin (FRA) – 1987 in BMW M3
Didier Auriol (FRA) – 1988 in Ford Sierra RS Cosworth
Gilles Panizzi (FRA) – 2000 in Peugeot 206 WRC
Jesús Puras (ESP) – 2001 in Citroën Xsara WRC

Notable WRC debuts in France:

Didier Auriol (FRA) – 1984 in Renault 5 Turbo (retired)
Bernard Béguin (FRA) – 1974 in Alfa Romeo Alfetta (retired)
Alexandre Bengué (FRA) – 1999 in Peugeot 106 S16 (retired)
Guy Fréquelin (FRA) – 1973 in Audi 80 (retired)
Simon Jean-Joseph (FRA) – 1993 in Ford Escort RS Cosworth (retired)
Achim Mörtl (AUT) – 1997 in Subaru Impreza 555 (finished 17th)
Michèle Mouton (FRA) – 1974 in Alpine-Renault A110 1800 (finished 12th)
Alain Oreille (FRA) – 1984 in Renault 11 Turbo (finished 21st)
Brice Tirabassi (FRA) – 1999 in Peugeot 106 S16 (retired)
Auguste Turiani (MC) – 1975 in Opel Commodore GS/E (finished 16th)

For complete list of Winners and Historical Stats click here.

Did You Know?

In 2003 Petter Solberg claimed his first (and so far only) victory on tarmac in Corsica. He was the first Norwegian and only the second Scandinavian to taste victory on the French Island. The other was the great Markku Alén of Finland. By contrast, Frenchmen have won 19 of the 27 WRC Drivers Championship events in Corsica.

Part II: With a win Sébastien Loeb can equal Didier Auriol’s 3 consecutive wins in France (1988-1990). Still Loeb would be only halfway to Auriol’s record 6 Corsica victories.