RALLYRACC – RALLY DE ESPAÑA 2022, October 20-23, 2022
2022 FIA World Rally Championship, round 12
For immediate release
Sunday, October 23rd, 2022
SÉBASTIEN OGIER CONFIRMS HIS FOURTH VICTORY AT RALLY DE ESPAÑA
• Thierry Neuville eases away from Kalle Rovanperä to seal second place
• Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT clinches the FIA WRC’s Manufacturers’ Championship
• Suninen beats Rossel to FIA WRC2 glory; Joona secures FIA WRC3 title
SALOU (Spain): Sébastien Ogier clinched his first WRC win of the season with a polished performance at the Salou-based RallyRACC-Rally de España on Sunday.
The Frenchman’s 55th career WRC victory was also his fourth in Spain and marked a first success for his new co-driver Benjamin Veillas, who took over from Julien Ingrassia at the start of Ogier’s reduced 2022 programme of events with the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team.
The Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 driver led for the first time after three of the 19 asphalt stages to the north and west of Salou, regained the advantage two stages later and won eight speed tests on his way to a winning margin of 16.4 seconds. His weekend’s work was also vital in the Japanese brand confirming back-to-back FIA WRC’s Manufacturers’ titles with one event still to run.
Ogier said: “I am delighted for Benji (Veillas) today. It is fantastic to get another win. It was an important weekend for the team. We are World Champions. A fantastic job one more time. It is time to celebrate. It is not always easy to achieve such good results.”
Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT driver Thierry Neuville moved into second place at the expense of Ogier’s team-mate and World Champion Kalle Rovanperä on the short spectator stage in Salou on Saturday evening. The Belgian and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe managed that advantage to the finish to confirm second overall, with Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen rounding off the podium places.
“P2 is a good result for us, said Neuville. “We have done a good job during the weekend. There is something left and we are going to work hard for it and try and finish the job in Japan on a good note.”
The Estonian crew of Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja were no match for the leading trio on this occasion but the 2019 World Champions finished in a comfortable fourth position in the second of the Hyundais.
Local hero Dani Sordo has come so close to winning his home event on numerous occasions but struggled with his pace for two days. It came good late on for the Hyundai driver and he set two fastest times on his way to fifth on his 19th appearance on the Spanish event.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans sustained a puncture on the final morning and finished in a relatively subdued sixth. A season that had promised so much for the Welshman has not gone according to plan in recent weeks.
Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta benefited from a puncture for Ireland’s Craig Breen on the final morning to secure seventh. The resultant time delay also pushed Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle behind M-Sport Ford team-mate Adrien Fourmaux and into ninth overall on Nagle’s final WRC event as a full-time professional co-driver. Pierre-Louis Loubet rounded off the top 10 in the third of the Ford Pumas.
Teemu Suninen controlled the WRC2 category over the closing stages to collect his best result of the season for the Hyundai Motorsport N team. The Finn finished 32.5 seconds ahead of event debutant Yohan Rossel. Nikolai Gryazin came home in third and Emil Lindholm gave his title ambitions a major boost with fourth place. The outcome of the FIA WRC2 Championship will be decided in Japan next month.
In the showdown for the FIA WRC3 Drivers’ Championship, Finland’s Lauri Joona held off a ferocious challenge from Jan Černý, his cause helped when the Czech incurred a costly 10-second time penalty for a late check-in at SS19. The gap at the end was only nine seconds!
Sunday – as it happened
With the Puma rebuilt after his crash on Saturday, Gus Greensmith was given the task of opening the road for the only night stage of the event – the 12.15km of Pradip. The Briton set the benchmark time of 7min 15.3sec, as Jourdan Serderidis suffered power steering issues.
Fourmaux pushed hard and managed to reduce Katsuta’s hold on eighth place to 9.6 seconds and Sordo was the quickest of all the drivers, even though the Spaniard thought he was braking too early in some places.
In the battle for the top three places, Rovanperä slipped another one-tenth of a second behind second-placed Neuville to trail the Belgian by 1.5 seconds. A cautious Ogier cruised through to set the eighth quickest time and his lead slipped slightly to 17.5 seconds.
The first pass through the Riudecanyes (15.90km) stage would also be an ideal opportunity for crews to carry out a high-speed recce for the Wolf Power Stage finale. It was still quite dark when the first crews tackled the twisty special.
Fourmaux glanced the crash barrier after a mistake with his pace note on a tightening corner and that enabled Katsuta to re-establish a 13.3-second advantage in the scrap for eighth. Breen was running fastest and then slid wide, punctured a front-left tyre and damaged the rim. The Irishman lost 48 seconds and slipped behind Katsuta and Fourmaux into ninth.
Evans also punctured a front-left tyre at the same place and dropped 10 seconds, but the Welshman maintained sixth place. Sordo was growing in confidence and delivered another flier but was no match for Neuville and the Belgian extended his grip on second place with the fastest time, his cause helped when Rovanperä clipped the same drain as his rivals and also punctured a front-left tyre. Ogier erred on the side of caution again, avoided the drainage hole, was second quickest and his lead was trimmed to 14.1 seconds.
Pradip 2 ran in daylight but thunderstorms were forecast for the Salou area. Would there be a sting in the tail on the weather front?
Breen beat Fourmaux by 5.9 seconds and trimmed the Frenchman’s grip on eighth place to 3.6 seconds, although the Irishman denied he was trying to catch his M-Sport Ford team-mate. Sordo shaved 1.9 seconds off his run in the dark to go quickest but he was edged out by Tänak and then by Neuville.
Rovanperä dropped 2.2 seconds but remained 8.8 seconds up on Tänak but Ogier snatched the stage win and took a 15.8-second advantage to the Wolf Power Stage finale.
With the world title already decided, bonus points for the last stage only really took on significance for the minor positions in the Drivers’ Championship.
Katsuta set the early benchmark of 10min 11.012sec and that stood with five cars still to run. But Sordo passed the Japanese with a 10min 10.129sec flier and Tänak then ran even quicker with a 10min 08.966sec.
Rovanperä then stunned the Estonian with a faster run of 10min 08.240sec and Neuville crossed the finish line even quicker with a 10min 07.068sec flier. That left the stage open for Ogier and the Frenchman sealed victory with the fastest time of 10min 06.402sec to earn the five bonus points.
RallyRACC-Rally de España 2022 – positions after SS19 (unofficial):
1. Sébastien Ogier (FRA)/Benjamin Veillas (FRA) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2hr 44min 43.9sec
2. Thierry Neuville (BEL)/Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2hr 45min 00.3sec
3. Kalle Rovanperä (FIN)/Jonne Halttunen (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2hr 45min 18.4sec
4. Ott Tänak (EST)/Martin Järveoja (EST) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2hr 45min 27.9sec
5. Dani Sordo (ESP)/Candido Carrera (ESP) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2hr 46min 00.4sec
6. Elfyn Evans (GBR)/Scott Martin (GBR) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2hr 46min 35.0sec
7. Takamoto Katsuta (JPN)/Aaron Johnston (IRL) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2hr 47min 03.0sec
8. Adrien Fourmaux (FRA)/Alexandre Coria (FRA) Ford Puma Rally1 2hr 47min 22.3sec
9. Craig Breen (IRL)/Paul Nagle (IRL) Ford Puma Rally1 2hr 47min 26.9sec
10. Pierre-Louis Loubet (FRA)/Vincent Landais (FRA) Ford Puma Rally1 2hr 48min 09.0sec
Rally leaders
SS1-2 Kalle Rovanperä
SS3 Sébastien Ogier
SS4 Thierry Neuville
SS5-19 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
SS9 Thierry Neuville
SS10 Sébastien Ogier
SS11 N/A
SS12 Sébastien Ogier
SS13 Sébastien Ogier
SS14 Dani Sordo
SS15 Thierry Neuville/Ott Tänak
SS16 Dani Sordo
SS17 Thierry Neuville
SS18 Sébastien Ogier
SS19 Sébastien Ogier
Ends
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