Check
out the Rallye Catalunya official
homepage with stage
results.
There were lots of high hopes as the teams came to Catalonia but nobody could expect the kind of farce - or tragedy - into which the Spanish round of WRC and its aftermath turned.
All the top teams and drivers were present and to everyone's astonishment it was Juha Kankkunen who was fastest on the first stages of the rally which was run entirely on asphalt. He was followed by Sainz, McRae & others. The first major retirement came right on the first stage as Ford's Bruno Thiry lost his front wheel. Armin Schwarz of Toyota lost the 4-wheel-drive on SS 11 and was unable to continue.
At the end of the first day Kankkunen's lead to Sainz was 22 secs. On
the 2nd day he increased the lead to 51 secs but on SS 16 either his
co-driver Nicky Grist missed a note or Kankkunen missheard it and the
Toyota was flung out of the road and into a tree. They were able to
continue to the end of the stage with the badly damaged car but not further
due to a no-service area.
Juha Kankkunen was having one of his greatest
drives on asphalt
before his retirement.
Carlos Sainz was now in the lead, with Colin McRae in close pursuit, the difference was at the and of the day only 8 secs. Didier Auriol was third, 52 secs behind the leader. 4th was Subaru's Piero Liatti and 5th Tommi Makinen.
On the second stage of the last day of the rally Tommi Makinen crashed out spectacularily hitting at high speed an ambulance which was parked by the road. No one was hurt in the incident, though. The result of the rally itself was, again, decided by team orders. Just like Mitsubishi in the Swedish Rally, Subaru gave team orders before the last day to freeze the positions.
Colin McRae was fastest on the last day and passed Sainz but after the last stage, before the time control, McRae stopped and waited so that he got one minute penalty for coming in late. Colin wasn't, quite understandably, too happy with the disgraceful end of the rally. Prodrive team boss David Richards had the usual explanations of securing a double-win for the team.
Subaru got a perfect result as Piero Liatti took the third place after Didier Auriol had steering problems on the last stage. After the race, Auriol was disqualified from the 4th position due to an illegal turbo charger. This was a start of a scandal which was much bigger than any team orders and about which you can read more from here. So, Francois Delecour of Ford after a bunch of technical problems finally ended up 4th and Mitsubishi's remaining driver Andrea Aghini 5th.
Carlos Sainz enjoyed a huge support from the crowds.
Now that Toyota is out Sainz and McRae are left to dice out the championship in the RAC Rally. The starting points couldn't be more evenly matched and I think there will be no team orders this time!
1. Sainz/Moya (Subaru) 5h 5'58" 2. McRae/Ringer (Subaru) 51" behind 3. Liatti/Alessandri (Subaru) 1'58" 4. Delecour/François (Ford) 2'40" 5. Aghini/Farnocchia (Mitsubishi) 2'54" 6. Trelles/Del Buono (Toyota) 5'56" 7. Gómez/Martí (Renault) 12'03" 8. Navarra/Casazza (Toyota) 12'22" 9. Bassas/Rodríguez (BMW) 22'08" 10. Postel/Peyret (Subaru) 26'40" 11. Madeira/Silva (Mitsubishi) 27'54" 12. Ducruet/Delorme (Lancia) 31'09" ...
1. Carlos Sainz 70 pts 2. Colin McRae 70 3. Kenneth Eriksson 48 4. Francois Delecour 46 5. Tommi Makinen 38 ...
1. Mitsubishi 288 pts 2. Subaru 286 3. Ford 205
RAC Rally (Nov. 19 - 22).