Rally Catalunya 1996

The official Rallye Catalunya home page.

This year Rally Catalunya was the final round of the group A World Rally Championship, as the RAC Rally in Britain is the last 'victim' of the rotation system which will not be used anymore next year. With the drivers championship already decided and the manufacturers title almost certainly going to Subaru the stakes weren't very high but that didn't prevent a great race from developing on the sweeping mountain roads of Catalunya.

Not convinced by Didier Auriol's performance in Sanremo, Mitsubishi seemed to have given up in the title chase, relying only on Tommi Makinen and Richard Burns in Catalunya, neither really asphalt specialists.

The rally started in a grim fashion for the Spanish hero, Carlos Sainz. On the second special stage of the rally he went off, sustaining terminal damage in the front of the Ford Escort Cosworth. The morning mist which had condensed on the road surface had made the roads damp and very slippery. The new World Champion Tommi Makinen also had trouble at the same curve and damaged the suspension. He lost time but was able to continue. 

 The competition was very tight on the first day. Piero Liatti, who feels at home on paved roads, was first after the six stages of the day. Second was the remaining Ford driver, Bruno Thiry, only three seconds behind. Two seconds behind Bruno came his fellow Belgian Freddy Loix with a Toyota, and only one second behind him was Colin McRae. Fifth was Tommi Makinen with a 35 second gap to the leader.

 On the second day the battle focused on Subaru drivers Liatti and McRae. By winning the rally McRae would take the second place in the drivers' championship from Carlos Sainz. At the end of the day Liatti was still leading, though, but only by three secs. Freddy Loix who showed good form in Sanremo was again extremely fast on the still damp roads. He was now third, 32 sec behind Liatti and 14 secs in front of Thiry.

Liatti and McRae continued their duel on the last day evenly; there were no team orders. On the penultimate stage Colin took the lead and kept it to the end, even though he said he was very close to crashing on the last stage. With victories from the last two events Colin McRae was finally second in the championship. With the result Subaru also got the manufacturers' title.

 Freddy Loix had engine trouble during the last day, so Bruno Thiry got the third spot. Loix' excellent performance in the last two rallies this year won't go unnoticed, I'm sure. This year's World Champion Tommi Makinen struggled with tire choices all through the rally and was reasonably happy to finish in fifth position.

 Like Makinen, Kenneth Eriksson wasn't very happy on the asphalt roads of Catalunya and finished modestly 7th. 8th was the winner of F2, Spaniard Oriol Gomez with a Renault Maxi Megane.

 This wasn't a bad year, even with one top team missing from the WRC. The teams were very closely matched, and Tommi Makinen got his title purely by excellent driving, although there were a lot of gravel rallies this year due to the rotational system. Next year, there will be a whopping 14 rounds of the WRC and with the introduction of the World Rally Car format we are going to see new cars which really look, and sound, like true racing machines.

WRC Infosystem will continue as the premier window from Internet to World Rallying also next year. There will be changes, most important of which will be moving to a new site. I will keep you informed of all that is happening.

Results of Rally Catalunya:

Championship standings

RAC Rally (Nov 24-27)