RALLYRACC – RALLY DE ESPAÑA 2022, October 20-23, 2022
2022 FIA World Rally Championship, round 12
For immediate release
Friday, October 21st, 2022
OGIER RETURNS TO WRC ACTION AND TAKES SLENDER LEAD IN SPAIN
• Rovanperä, Neuville and Tänak handily placed for weekend challenge
• Teemu Suninen locked in intense WRC2 tussle with Nikolai Gryazin
SALOU (Spain): Eight-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier announced his return to the FIA World Rally Championship in spectacular style by snatching the outright lead in RallyRACC-Rally de España after eight asphalt stages in the hills to the west of Salou on Friday.
The Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 driver and co-driver Benjamim Veillas won three of the day’s stages, led on two occasions and overcame the handicap of running seventh on the road during the morning’s loop of four tricky stages.
Chasing his 55th career WRC win and a fourth success in Spain, 38-year-old Ogier heads into day two with a 4.8-second lead over new World Champion Kalle Rovanperä. “It’s been a good day,” he said. “I am really happy. The feeling has been good and I could enjoy the whole day. Not so easy with the changing weather but with a 4.8 lead we will need to keep pushing tomorrow.”
Toyota team-mate Rovanperä was like a greyhound out of the blocks on cleaner roads this morning and led for two stages. The young Finn won four speed tests and is well-placed to attack on Saturday.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak traded blows throughout the day but hybrid issues proved costly for the 2019 World Champion and Neuville headed back to the night halt in Salou with a 7.5-second cushion in third place.
Elfyn Evans and Dani Sordo struggled with tyre choices throughout the day and they both suffered front-left punctures on the penultimate stage. The Welshman lost more time than his Spanish rival and Sordo – taking part in the event for the 19th time – managed to snatch fifth place in his Hyundai. The duo are separated by 10.3 seconds after eight stages.
The four M-Sport Ford Pumas struggled to match the pace of the Toyotas and Hyundais. Craig Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle were the highest-placed Puma crew in seventh. Adrien Fourmaux, Gus Greensmith and Pierre-Louis Loubet held ninth, 10th and 11th and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was down in eighth after he also punctured a front tyre on the seventh stage.
Finland’s Teemu Suninen found himself locked in a battle with Nikolai Gryazin for WRC2 honours and the Hyundai man led by 12.7 seconds at the night halt.
A sixth stage spin dropped Polish title contender Kajetan Kajetanowicz back into rival Emil Lindholm’s clutches after the Finn fought back from a time loss with a flat tyre during the morning’s loop.
Friday – as it happened
Rovanperä, the youngest ever World Rally Champion, had the unenviable task of running first through the short 11.05km opening test between Els Omells and Maldà. But running first actually played into his hands.
The Finn clocked a target time of 5min 16.1sec on a drying surface after heavy overnight rain and it was enough to beat Tänak, Neuville, Evans, Katsuta, Breen, Ogier and Sordo and give the youngster an early lead of 1.2 seconds over Neuville, as mud and gravel were thrown on to the racing line as the stage progressed and made conditions increasingly difficult.
Lindholm was the pace-setter in WRC2, where Jari Huttunen ground to a halt briefly and Pepe López stopped for over two and a half minutes with a puncture. Gryazin held second.
Serra de la Llena (11.79km) was next on the agenda. Rovanperä again laid down the gauntlet with a time of 6min 41sec and continued to edge away from his rivals. Tänak ceded another 5.8 seconds to the Finn, as Neuville retained second overall with the second quickest time and Ogier belied his position of running seventh on the road to snatch third from Evans.
A right-rear tyre off the rim cost Lindholm his WRC2 lead and handed the reins to Gryazin and Yohan Rossel.
Les Garrigues Altes (22.64km) was the longest stage of the day and Rovanperä set a time of 12min 40.1sec, despite a little understeer as the stage progressed. Tänak managed to get the Hyundai’s hybrid system working a little better and beat the Finn by 4.7 seconds, but Neuville ran even faster to move ahead of Rovanperä.
Breen admitted to struggling on cautious pace notes but Ogier was a revelation and scorched to the fastest time with a scintillating run of 12min 31.9sec to storm ahead of Neuville and Rovanperä and take a 1.9-second outright lead. Sordo admitted that his tyre choice had been difficult and languished in sixth and Loubet finished the stage with a front-left puncture and lost around 30 seconds.
Rossel punctured near the stage finish and fell behind Suninen, although Gryazin retained a slender advantage.
The daunting Riba-roja (13.98km) stage completed the morning’s loop before the return to service in Salou. Rovanperä carded an 8min 43.6sec opener and was pipped by both Neuville and Tänak, although the Estonian finished the stage with an alternator warning light on the dashboard and stopped on the road section to make emergency repairs.
Ogier set the third quickest time and Neuville duly snatched the outright lead but Loubet was in the wars again and stopped after the stage finish to investigate smoke coming from under the Puma’s bonnet area. Suninen managed to slip in front of Gryazin to lead WRC2 by 2.3 seconds.
Temperatures had risen considerably for the re-run of the Els Omells-Maldà stage (SS5), but it was already raining at the village of Riba-roja d’Ebre – close to SS8 – and an interesting afternoon of tyre choices was in prospect.
Rovanperä beat his morning’s run by 5.9 seconds but Tänak closed the gap on the Finn to just 0.4 seconds in the battle for third place. An overcautious Neuville dropped 2.3 seconds to the Estonian, as Ogier regained the outright lead with his second quickest time of the day. Lindholm began to claw time back in WRC2, although Suninen led the category by 4.6 seconds from Gryazin.
Light drizzle was prevalent on the re-run of Serra de la Llena and Rovanperä was 6.2 seconds slower than his morning’s run. But the World Champion still beat Tänak by 4.2 to tighten his grip on third overall and he moved up to second when Neuville haemorrhaged 4.6 to the Finn.
Ogier opted for a mixed tyre choice with two soft tyres in a diagonal pattern and the Frenchman’s decision paid off to an extent in the damp conditions: the Frenchman was second quickest and headed for Les Garrigues Altes with a lead of 4.3 seconds.
Kajetanowicz survived a spin on a tricky corner to enable WRC2 title rival Lindholm to move to within 3.4 seconds. Suninen saw his cushion over Gryazin reduced to 1.8 seconds.
Drier conditions prevailed in stage seven and Rovanperä shattered the morning’s fastest time with a 12min 10.9sec flier. He beat Tänak by 4.8 and strengthened his grip on second place to 5.1 seconds, as Evans sustained a front-left puncture, dropped over half a minute and lost fifth place to Sordo, who also finished the stage with a flat tyre.
Katsuta too suffered a puncture and finished the stage with no hybrid on the Yaris. His loss was Breen’s gain and the Irishman moved up to seventh. Ogier maintained the lead with the second quickest time but saw his lead trimmed by 0.7 seconds. Gryazin dropped 10 seconds to Suninen in the battle for the WRC2 lead when the rain intensified.
The re-run of Riba-roja brought the day’s action to a close. Afternoon drizzle had abated and there were only a few damp patches on the sinuous mountain road. Rovanperä was 1.2 seconds slower than Neuville’s stage four-winning time, Tänak lost hybrid power again and Neuville confirmed third place at the night halt with the fourth fastest time.
But Ogier was not to be denied the day’s headline and a third stage win of the day enabled the Frenchman to return to Salou with a 4.8-second lead over Rovanperä.
Saturday
Competitors tackle a further two loops of three tarmac stages to the northwest of Salou on Saturday, before returning to the coastal resort on the Costa Daurada for a short super special stage of 2.15km from 18.40hrs.
The action in the hills gets underway with the Savallá (13.93km) stage at 08.44hars continues with Querol-Les Pobles (20/19km) at 09.37hrs and El Montmell (24.18km) from 10.38hrs. The three speed tests are then repeated at 14.14hrs, 15.07hrs and 16.08hrs.
RallyRACC-Rally de España 2022 – positions after SS8:
1. Sébastien Ogier (FRA)/Benjamin Veillas (FRA) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1hr 06min 07.9sec
2. Kalle Rovanperä (FIN)/Jonne Halttunen (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1hr 06min 12.7sec
3. Thierry Neuville (BEL)/Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 1hr 06min 20.4sec
4. Ott Tänak (EST)/Martin Järveoja (EST) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 1hr 06min 27.9sec
5. Dani Sordo (ESP)/Candido Carrera (ESP) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 1hr 06min 58.8sec
6. Elfyn Evans (GBR)/Scott Martin (GBR) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1hr 07min 09.1sec
7. Craig Breen (IRL)/Paul Nagle (IRL) Ford Puma Rally1 1hr 07min 11.6sec
8. Takamoto Katsuta (JPN)/Aaron Johnston (IRL) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1hr 07min 36.5sec
9. Adrien Fourmaux (FRA)/Alexandre Coria (FRA) Ford Puma Rally1 1hr 07min 39.2sec
10. Gus Greensmith (GBR)/Jonas Andersson (SWE) Ford Puma Rally1 1hr 07min 46.7sec
11. Pierre Louis Loubet (FRA)/Vincent Landais (FRA) Ford Puma Rally1 1hr 07min 56.6sec
Rally leaders
SS1-2 Kalle Rovanperä
SS3 Sébastien Ogier
SS4 Thierry Neuville
SS5-8 Sébastien Ogier
Stage winners
SS1 Kalle Rovanperä
SS2 Kalle Rovanperä
SS3 Sébastien Ogier
SS4 Thierry Neuville
SS5 Sébastien Ogier
SS6 Kalle Rovanperä
SS7 Kalle Rovanperä
SS8 Sébastien Ogier
Ends
For further media information:
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