RALLY ESSENTIALS
Day one: 92.01 miles; eight stages
Weather: sunny 13-24 celsius
■ Not for the first time in recent rallies, the initial pace is set by Ott Tanak. The Estonian is flying through Friday’s gravel roads. This time the Toyota driver’s not demolishing everybody in every stage, instead he’s demonstrating solid consistency – in the top three times on every test, he’s almost half a minute clear on Friday night.
■ Not in action since August, the upside to Dani Sordo’s part-programme with Hyundai is a preferable place on the road on a dry day one in his homeland. He makes the most of a cleaner, grippier line to spend much of the day in a provisional podium slot before moving into second on the last Friday test.
■ Sordo’s Hyundai team-mates are struggling with Andreas Mikkelsen sixth and Thierry Neuville ninth, the Belgian having opened the road and swept the line all day.
■ M-sport’s charge is being spearheaded by Elfyn Evans as the Welshman looks ahead to the weekend just 2.9s behind Sordo. He’d been second until a slightly untidy run through SS7 let the Spaniard by. Sebastien Ogier, like Neuville, is struggling for grip running second on the road – he’s seventh.
■ Sebastien Loeb is knocking the rust off, not having competed on the dirt since Mexico. Like Sordo, he’s in a good place on the road and, once he dials some understeer out of the C3, he’s up into fourth.
End of day one:
1 Tanak/jarveoja 1h34m27.4s; 2 Sordo/ Del Barrio +26.8s; 3 Evans/ Barritt +29.7s; 4 Loeb/ Elena +30.2s; 5 Latvala/anttila +37.6s; 6 Mikkelsen/jaeger +39.1s.
Day two: 75.68 miles; seven stages
Weather: rain/overcast 9-18 celsius
■ The first stage of the day is cancelled after too many spectators brave the heavy Catalan rain and overload the weekend’s first test.
■ Once the day does get going, Tanak makes sensational use of Michelin’s full wet tyre to move further clear at the top of the table. Unfortunately for the Estonian his tenure of the lead won’t last much longer – he stops to change a puncture on the next stage and plummets to ninth place.
■ Sordo leads for one stage before he’s forced to give best to Jari-matti Latvala. Hyundai’s local boy struggles with the inconsistent conditions – especially the mud in the second run at El Montmell and slithers from second to sixth. Finn Latvala stays out front on Saturday night, but behind him the classification is getting closer and closer.
■ Ogier is the man making the biggest move, jumping from seventh to second on Saturday. The defending champion’s countryman Loeb is the meat in an M-sport sandwich, 3.3s down on Ogier and 1.8s up on Evans.
■ Positionally, Neuville’s Saturday isn’t quite as impressive as his title rival Ogier’s – he ‘only’ climbs from ninth to fifth – but in terms of time nobody is as quick as the Belgian through Saturday. He scores two scratch times to move himself right into the fight for the podium or win.
End of day two:
1 Latvala/anttila 2h35m01.8s 2 Ogier/ Ingrassia +4.7s; 3 Loeb/ Elena +8.0s; 4 Evans/ Barritt +9.8s; 5 Neuville/ Gilsoul +12.7s; 6 Sordo/ Del Barrio +16.5s.
Day three: 38.34 miles; four stages
Weather: overcast 6-15 celsius
■ Loeb secures first WRC win in six years, while double podium for M-sport boys Ogier and Evans plays the Cumbrian squad back into contention for a second consecutive manufacturers’ title. Almost. The Brits go Down Under 25 points away from top team Toyota Gazoo Racing.
■ Hyundai gains some ground on Toyota with Neuville and Sordo taking fourth and fifth ahead of Yaris drivers Tanak and Esapekka Lappi in sixth and seventh.
■ Latvala is the day’s biggest loser, dropping down the order after hitting a barrier in SS17 and sliding to eighth place.
■ Craig Breen and Mikkelsen round out the top 10 after both suffering a tough event. The Citroen driver struggled to recover from a trio of spins earlier in the rally, while Hyundai’s wayward Norwegian remained some way from the pace.