The next to the last round of World Rally 2013 turned out to be as hot and exciting as the culture of the country where it was held. It comprised the passion of the Spanish flamenco, the spirit of bullfighting, and all in the entire race went over with a bang. Though there were still a lot of questions. Including those addressed to the organisers due to schedule peculiarities. The first part of the rally was conducted on asphalt surface, and the closing stage took place on gravel.
It’s been a long-term discussion between the teams, the organisers — who were on the side of the teams by the way — and FIA on how to act in this case. The idea suggested by the teams was utterly simple — during the gravel stages the WRC participants start in reverse order. It will allow keeping the audience interested and will not give any disadvantage to the leaders of the asphalt stage — they will not be clearing the track. As said by the Spanish pilot Dani Sordo, the tracks of Catalonia, where the Sunday part of the rally was to be held, were very slippery and the leaders would have nothing to set against their rivals. The FIA did not want to agree to such proposal and took Solomon's decision. The start order on the first gravel special stage would be determined by the results shown by the teams at the finish of SS8. As it is a bonus stage and the teams get additional points there, it will be disadvantageous for them to reduce speed thus gaining a more beneficial position on Sunday. This will make them give their best on the final city stage. But the teams were not satisfied with such compromise solution. The principals of Volkswagen and Citroën stated, that did not solve the problem and turned sports into strategy struggle.
Sébastien Ogier, who had already won the title during the previous home round in France, made a confident start in Spain as well. He secured Friday evening stages. But on Saturday morning due to a tire puncture he lost almost a minute, letting his VW teammate Jari-Matti Latvala overtake him. Sunday gravel special stages turned out to be even trickier than one could imagine. Dust kicked up by the first teams was clearing slowly and unwillingly complicating the situation for those behind. The track had already been cleared off small gravel for them but they had almost zero visibility.
Nevertheless the newly-crowned World Champion managed to cut almost by half his 42 seconds gap which Ogier and his teammate had before the start of the gravel stage. And by the next to the last stage he managed to gain the leading position. Fate played its part here as well. Latvala’s car started having troubles and he was completing the penultimate stage with flames under the bonnet. The Finn managed to fix up his car in some way but it was not performing at full capacity. As a result, two top places were taken by Volkswagen representatives but in the regular order: first place taken by Ogier and second went to Latvala.
It was a home race for Dani Sordo who became the major newsmaker of the round. He was only 1.5 seconds behind Ogier after the asphalt stage but he had a tire puncture on Sunday and later during the penultimate stage he put his car off the track. So Mikko Hirvonen was third while Thierry Neuville, who was claiming bronze, also had a tire puncture on Sunday morning and was only fourth to cross the finish line.
Evgeny Novikov scored fifth result being only 2 seconds behind the Belgian. It has already been the fifth points-scoring finish shown by Evgeny. He had a rather regular race start but then he increased the pace and showed quite a good result. Right now the “Russian rocket” scores 67 points. Sébastien Loeb has only 1 point more.
The final WRC 2013 round will be held on November 15–16 in Great Britain. Here are the final standings after the Spanish Rally:
1. Sébastien Ogier, 265
2. Thierry Neuville, 158
3. Jari-Matti Latvala, 144
4. Mikko Hirvonen, 126
5. Daniel Sordo, 117
…
8. Evgeny Novikov, 67
Photo: rallyracc.com
