 Rallye Catalunya - Rallye De Espaņa 2002 review.
Story by Andrew Frampton.
Following their tremendous 1-2-3 result in Corsica earlier this month, the Peugeot team went to the 'Rallye Catalunya', in Spain with the aim of repeating that result, and extending their lead in the driver's and manufacturer's championships. Having missed Corsica, Citroen, the asphalt rally experts, were back in fray - yet even they could not put a halt to what has so far been a Peugeot domination of the World Rally Championship.
The Citroen and Peugeot teams had been expected to battle for the lead, but their domination was more dramatic than many had imagined, as the French marques filled the top three times on each of the stages of the first leg. After SS1 was cancelled because there were too many spectators in the stage the Peugeot team made the best start to the day, with the three silver machines setting the three fastest times on the stage. Gilles Panizzi lead from Richard Burns and Marcus Gronholm. The top two positions would remain the same on the next two stages, meaning that Panizzi led Burns by 13.5 seconds after the first three stages had been run.
Philippe Bugalski had been mooted as one of the drivers that could upset the Peugeot domination, and after a reasonable start that saw him in the top six on each of the stages, he set second fastest times on the day's last two stages, to move himself into contention. Panizzi had been fastest on these two stages, and after a clean sweep of fastest times on day one, led Burns, who was third fastest through SS5 and SS6 by the relatively slim margin of just 26.2 seconds. Bugalski was third overnight, 18.5 seconds adrift of the world champion.
Sebastien Loeb, like team-mate Bugalski, had struggled early on with the set up on his Xsara, but the Frenchman took fourth from Gronholm who dropped back with brake problems. Petter Solberg also suffered with problems with his brakes, but was the top non-French machine overnight in sixth position in his Subaru. Thomas Radstrom's event went from bad to worse as he failed to come to terms with the asphalt surface, and slid out of the event on the day's final stage. Another to suffer brake problems was Jesus Puras. The Frenchman was expected to go well on his home event, but after his brake fluid had boiled and then escaped all together, he was lucky to still be in the event, albeit in 17th.
The other home favourite, Carlos Sainz, was struggling with the injuries he sustained in a testing shunt on the run up to this event, which eliminated his co-driver Luis Moya from the rally. His new co-driver, Marc Marti, was struggling to come to terms with Sainz's devilishly complicated pace note system. He ended the day in eighth, one place behind Ford team-mate Colin McRae who was struggling with injuries himself, in his case a broken finger sustained in a crash in Corsica. The third Ford of Markko Martin was ninth, holding off Harri Rovanpera's privately run Peugeot. Both were thankful that Tommi Makinen slid into a ditch and lost around two minutes on the day's final stage dropping the Finn from 9th to 12th behind Toni Gardemeister's Skoda). He was ahead of the unimpressive Mitsubishis of Francois Delecour and Alister McRae, which were struggling on the asphalt and in 13th and 15th positions respectively, split by the Hyundai of Freddy Loix.
The morning of day two would see Tommi Makinen's event come to an end, as the Subaru's engine terminally was damaged in his excursion the previous evening. Having parked up on the road section leading to the first stage, he then learned that both SS7 and SS8 became victims of the spectator congestion that had caused SS1 to be cancelled. When the second day finally began on the Les Llosses-Alpens stage (SS9), Panizzi began where he had left off the previous night, by setting the fastest time, 3.4 seconds faster than Loeb. However, Panizzi's run of fastest times came to an end on SS10 - Solberg going 0.2 seconds faster than the Frenchman, becoming the only driver of a non-French car to set a fastest time.
If anyone then doubted Panizzi's supremacy, he soon put the record straight when he set fastest times on the two remaining stages to stretch his lead, and take his total number of stage wins to eight. Due to the lack of competitive mileage on the second leg (only four stages were run) the only positional changes in the top ten occurred due to retirement. The unfortunate driver was Sainz, who spun off the road while attempting to avoid a parked car on SS10, ripping off a wheel and ending his event. Panizzi had extended his lead over Richard Burns to 44.4 seconds, while the leader's margin over third placed Bugalski had grown to just over a minute. Loeb held fourth from Gronholm, Solberg and McRae, although Solberg had closed in on the Peugeot ahead of him, and had set himself up for an attack on the final day. Martin moved up to eighth, ahead of Rovanpera and Gardemeister. In eleventh position, Freddy Loix was the highest placed driver to make up a position by passing another car, having moved ahead of Delecour. The Mitsubishi was now twelfth, ahead of the similar machine of Alister McRae, Jesus Puras's Citroen and Armin Kremer's private Ford Focus.
The final day would see all six scheduled stages run, although the podium positions looked secure before the leg began. Burns' hopes of closing the gap to the leader were dealt a blow on the opening stage, as he and Panizzi set equal fastest time. Burns was fastest over the next two, but had only closed to within 31.7 seconds with half of the day's stages gone - Panizzi was so sure victory was his he took a moment to delight the fans with a doughnut in the middle of SS15. Panizzi finished the event off in style by setting fastest time on SS16, joint fastest time with Martin on SS17 and second fastest time on SS18. Burns had no answer, the Englishman came home 37.3 seconds adrift.
Bugalski's third position had been under threat from Loeb, but the young Frenchman rolled his Xsara only metres into SS14, losing four minutes and them retiring from the event, leaving Bugalski clear to cruise to the final podium position. Loeb's exit promoted Gronholm to fourth, ahead of Solberg, who was fastest on the final stage, and Colin McRae who took the final driver's championship point. Despite his joint fastest time, Martin lost out on a possible seventh position, when Rovanpera passed him on the final stage times. Behind, Francois Delecour took ninth after a terrific battle with the Hyundai of Loix, and the Skoda of Gardemeister, which had looked all set to take a top ten finish, but his engine expired yards from the finish of the final stage. Puras took eleventh ahead of Alister McRae, Achim Mortl, Kremer and Armin Schwarz.
The series now moves to its first gravel event of the season in Cyprus in the middle of April, and the Ford and Subaru teams will be attempting to claw back some of the ground gained by Peugeot over the last three rounds.
Result:
1. Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (Peugeot)
2. Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Subaru) +37.3s
3. Philippe Bugalski/Jean-Paul Chiaroni (Citroen) +1m13.5s
4. Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Peugeot) +1m42.7s
5. Petter Solberg/Phillip Mills (Subaru) +2m01.6s
6. Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Ford) +3m27.3s
7. Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot) +3m40.1s
8. Markko Martin/Michael Park (Ford) +3m43.9s
9. Francois Delecour/Daniel Grataloup (Mitsubishi) +5m28.6s
10. Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (Hyundai) +5m30.6s
Driver's Championship Standings:
1. Marcus Gronholm 21pts
2. Gilles Panizzi 20pts
3. Richard Burns 13pts
4. Tommi Makinen 10pts
5. Carlos Sainz 9pts
6. Philippe Bugalski 7pts
7. Sebastien Loeb 6pts
7. Harri Rovanpera 6pts
9. Colin McRae 5pts
10. Petter Solberg 5pts
Manufacturer's Championship Standings:
1. Peugeot 52pts
2. Ford 25pts
3. Subaru 20pts
4. Mitsubishi 6pts
5. Hyundai 1pt
2002 WRC season calendar
17/01 - 20/01 - 70E Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo
- Monte Carlo stage map by JR
- Monte Carlo preview by AF
- Monte Carlo review by AF
- Monte Carlo stage-by-stage times by JR
31/01 - 03/02 - Uddeholm Swedish Rally
- Sweden stage map by JR
- Sweden preview by AF
- Sweden review by AF
- Sweden stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Sweden by Ralliart
07/03 - 10/03 - Tour De Corse - Rallye De France
- Corsica stage map by JR
- Corsica preview by AF
- Corsica review by AF
- Corsica stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Corsica by Ralliart
21/03 - 24/03 - Rallye Catalunya - Rallye De Espaņa
- Catalunya stage map by JR
- Catalunya preview by AF
- Catalunya review by AF
- Catalunya stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Catalunya by Ralliart
18/04 - 21/04 - Cyprus Rally
- Cyprus stage map by JR
- Cyprus preview by AF
- Cyprus review by AF
- Cyprus stage-by-stage times by JR
16/05 - 19/05 - Rally Argentina
- Argentina stage map by JR
- Argentina preview by AF
- Argentina review by AF
- Argentina stage-by-stage times by JR
13/06 - 16/06 - Acropolis Rally
- Acropolis stage map by JR
- Acropolis preview by AF
- Acropolis review by AF
- Acropolis stage-by-stage times by JR
11/07 - 14/07 - Safari Rally Kenya
- Safari stage map by JR
- Safari preview by AF
- Safari review by AF
- Safari stage-by-stage times by JR
08/08 - 11/08 - Neste Rally Finland
- Finland stage map by JR
- Finland review by SS
- Finland stage-by-stage times by JR
22/08 - 25/08 - Int.Adac Rallye Deutschland
- Deutschland stage map by JR
- Deutschland review by AF
- Deutschland stage-by-stage times by JR
19/09 - 22/09 - Rallye Sanremo - Rallye D'Italia
- Sanremo stage map by JR
- Sanremo review by SS
- Sanremo stage-by-stage times by JR
03/10 - 06/10 - Propecia Rally Of New Zealand
- New Zealand stage map by JR
- New Zealand review by SS
- New Zealand stage-by-stage times by JR
31/10 - 03/11 - Telstra Rally Australia
14/11 - 17/11 - Network Q Rally Of Great Britain
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