Rally Catalunya 2001
LEG TWO
The two Citroens continued their domination on the second leg of Rally Catalunya. Rally leader after leg one Jesus Puras extended his lead on the first stage of the day (SS 7), but on the following stages his team-mate Philippe Bugalski fought back and took the lead on stage 9 by 2.5 secs. Other teams could nothing but wonder the speed of the Citroens; only Didier Auriol seemed to be able to keep up with his fellow countrymen, but he, too, was gradually falling behind. After SS 9 Auriol was 20 secs behind leader Bugalski, Panizzi was 48 secs behind and Tommi Makinen in 5th place was already a minute adrift from the leaders.
Carlos Sainz was going relatively well and climbed in the order, after SS 9 he was 8th, and on SS 10 he passed both both team mate Francois Delecour and Mitsubishi's Freddy Loix. Didier Auriol was fastest on stage 11, but he was still 27 secs behind Bugalski. After SS 11 Jesus Puras ran into fuel pressure problems and couldn't make it to the service. The Spaniard was out of the rally from the second position.
The final stage of the day was cancelled, because there were too many spectators on the stage. Stage 12 was supposed to be a rerun of SS 9, and already on SS 9 the drivers reported spectators in dangerous locations on the stage. This meant that Citroen's Philippe Bugalski starts the final leg in a lead of 27 secs over Didier Auriol.
Situation after stage 12 of 18:
1. Philippe Bugalski (FRA) Citroen - 2.24.42,3
2. Didier Auriol (FRA) Peugeot +27,7
3. Gilles Panizzi (FRA) Peugeot +1.10,4
4. Tommi Mäkinen (FIN) Mitsubishi +1.22,8
5. Carlos Sainz (ESP) Ford +2.23,5
6. Francois Delecour (FRA) Ford +2.23,9
7. Freddy Loix (BEL) Mitsubishi +2.26,3
8. Richard Burns (ENG) Subaru +2.45,8
9. Simon Jean-Joseph (FRA) Peugeot +3.49,4
10. Bruno Thiry (BEL) Skoda +4.37,6
11. Piero Liatti (ITA) Hyundai +4.49,6
12. Alister McRae (SCO) Hyundai +5.02,2
13. Adruzilo Lopes (POR) Peugeot +5.20,2
15. Markko Märtin (EST) Subaru +6.11,0
