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 Rally Catalunya 1997Rally Catalunya official website. After the dusty roads of Portugal it was time to enjoy the fast paved roads of the hilly terrains of Catalunya in north-eastern Spain. As the rally is driven entirely on asphalt, Subaru relied on their asphalt specialist Piero Liatti instead of Kenneth Eriksson as the driver of the second car. Mitsubishi's second works entry was driven by German Uwe Nittel who is mostly known of driving the gr. N Mitsubishi. Toyotas were scarce in the entrants list. The word is now that the new Corolla WRC will be introduced in Rally Finland (formerly known as the 1000 Lakes). Toyota has signed Didier Auriol as their development driver and he'll undoubtably drive the new car with Freddy Loix when it comes out. The sensation of the first stages in Catalunya were the group F2 front-wheel-drive Peugeot 306 Maxis with the French drivers Francois Delecour and Gilles Panizzi. Delecour was fastest on the first stage, Panizzi on the second. On SS 3 Delecour lost over three minutes in an off, but Panizzi continued in the lead until he had a puncture on SS 5, with one more stage to go on the first day. He lost 2.5 minutes and his 17 second lead was gone. A bit overwhelmed by the incredible pace of the light-weight Peugeots, the Subarus of Colin McRae and Piero Liatti fought a close battle followed by Mitsubishi's Tommi Makinen, not far behind. At the end of the day McRae was leading, but only by one second to Liatti. Makinen was 12 seconds behind.
The Fords of Carlos Sainz and Armin Schwarz were experiencing brake problems; Sainz was 5th behind the fast privately entered Subaru of Italian Angelo Medeghini. Schwarz was 7th. The second day started with a great three-way battle between the two Subarus and one Mitsubishi until SS 10 where McRae got a puncture and spinned. The crew changed the tire, losing three and a half minutes and dropping to 4th position. Liatti and Makinen continued the fight, after SS 11 they were even. On SS 12 Liatti was one second faster. On SS 13, the last stage of the day, Makinen was a second faster, even though he spun on the stage. So, Liatti and Makinen started the last day with exactly the same time. Behind the two leaders Panizzi was again third, still 2:30 behind, so he had been as fast as the leaders all through the day. Both Fords had peculiar problems. Apparently the exhausts were broken so that they transferred heat to the rear axels, causing the rear drive shaft to break down. This happened once to Sainz and twice to Schwarz, who had to retire for the first time this year. Sainz continued but he was in 10th position, to the disappointment of the Spanish fans. The five stages of the last day proved to be a real thriller. Makinen took the lead on the second stage of the day, extending it to ten seconds on the third. Liatti was faster on the penultimate stage, as Makinen made a slightly wrong tire choice. The difference was only 4 secs before the last, 36 kilometre stage. Makinen chose harder tires for the last stage and was three seconds faster than Liatti. This meant that Tommi Makinen took his first WRC win on asphalt surface with a pretty narrow margin of 7 seconds. Makinen rated it as one of the greatest wins of his career. For Liatti it was a frustrating co-incidence; last year in Catalunya he lost the same amount of time to winner Colin McRae. Gilles Panizzi, quite sensationally, finished third with the front-wheel-drive, normally aspirated Peugeot 306 Maxi. The dry weather and the fast roads with few really tight turns made Rally Catalunya very suitable for the light-weight F2 kit-cars. Colin McRae was 4th, followed by fast privateer Subarus of Medeghini and Rui Madeira. Francois Delecour came fifth to the finish, but he was excluded after the Peugeot was re-started by pushing on a no-service area. Seventh overall and second in F2 was the Spanish Peugeot Maxi driver Jaime Azcona. Uwe Nittel had an off on the last stage and finished the rally on three wheels in 8th position. Carlos Sainz was understandably disappointed with his tenth position. Next up is another asphalt rally, the Tour de Corse on the tight mountain roads of Corsica.
Results of Rally Catalunya:
Championship standings |
Next event: Tour de Corse (May 4 - 8)