RACC Rally Catalunya 2018

[BigWorm]

Hope so. Tarmac rallys are boring to watch anyway.

Did you miss last weekend by any chance?

[AnttiL]

Did you miss last weekend by any chance?

Don't know what you watched, but I was following a hugely exciting mixed surface rally.

It would be fascinating to increase the number of tarmac roads driven on gravel setup, but I guess it would be bad for the tyre wear and stuff. Maybe start Friday on tarmac, then switch to gravel setup for Saturday and Sunday and do some full tarmac stages in between? I also loved the short gravel/chipseal section at the end of Savalla, which was driven on tarmac setup.

[BigWorm]

Don't know what you watched, but I was following a hugely exciting mixed surface rally.

It would be fascinating to increase the number of tarmac roads driven on gravel setup, but I guess it would be bad for the tyre wear and stuff. Maybe start Friday on tarmac, then switch to gravel setup for Saturday and Sunday and do some full tarmac stages in between? I also loved the short gravel/chipseal section at the end of Savalla, which was driven on tarmac setup.

Well I thought both tarmac legs were very exciting and that's what I was aiming towards, not a boring surface at all.

[drive]

Well I thought both tarmac legs were very exciting and that's what I was aiming towards, not a boring surface at all.

Exiting as very close battle, but boring watching actual driving for me. Bring on more gravel!

[AnttiL]

Exiting as very close battle, but boring watching actual driving for me. Bring on more gravel!

Looks more spectacular in amateur videos like this by SubaruNorway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMu1tOds8-Q

[JTGANG]

Looks more spectacular in amateur videos like this by SubaruNorway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMu1tOds8-Q

Fantastic video !!! Amazing passage from Lappi at 1:32 !!!

[Fast Eddie WRC]

My first time in Spain for Rally Catalunya and it didn't disappoint! Bit too many people in the city so only went so service on Wednesday and didn't even bother trying to get to the podium, but stages are more important
https://youtu.be/qMu1tOds8-Q

Sorry for the cracking sound some places, think i got some china copy mic in Barcelona after loosing mine on the previous rally.

Fantastic video again giving a true impression of the rally and the tarmac speed and amount of cutting. You just dont get these views from TV coverage.

And no-one can criticise your filming places when there are real nutters at WRC events...

[Fredouye]

Hi all

a few photos from this wonderful event, my first gravel rally...we managed to see the shakedown, and special stages 3/5/7, 10/13 & 16-18.













The other photos are here : https://flic.kr/s/aHsmsB8aii

[bluuford]

where is bluuford? id like to listen from him about the weather and tyre choice at Saturday morning.

OK, as you were requesting I will give U a short overview, so that there is nothing that can harm me or team etc. Sorry for so late replay, I nearly dont sleep during the rally and it takes me some days to discover where am I

Well, my preparations for Rally Spain started already 2 weeks before as this rally has always been a bit tricky for me. So, I reached to Salou already on Friday, a week before the rally. It was really good, because it was extremely rainy and everything was filled with water, everywhere. City stage had basically rivers, up to 30 cm deep. So, then I learned how the rain behaves there and how storng it is compared to the radar signal etc.

Saturday was also a bit tricky weather and I was able to see how small rain areas were moving in the mountains etc.

So, now the rally.

Firday morning was already good tire choice for us. Basically, every rally day is a bit like research work for me, like writing scientific publication. I compared last year temps and distances and everything, it was important to know just if the temperatures are low enough to use softs for the first loop. Seems that it worked, Jari and Ott were both very fast. Friday afternoon was easy, nothing too difficult

It was a bit messy with Saturday. I was not sure about what is happening until Friday late noon. Then I was sure that it will be very wet right from the morning, actually, it was pretty much copy-paste weather from previous weekend In the morning, when Lappi left, he stepped in the office and asked if 4FW+2S is OK, I didn’t say anything else but, “yes.” For the others, it was a bit more complicated, but 10 min before service out I was quite sure that 5FW is the best choice. Well, it was a bit funny feeling when we got info on what tires the other teams are using. So, our chief engineer asked if those boarding passes that I printed on previous day, were they meant for me if the choice is wrong… Well, all looked good, there were perfect conditions on first stage for our tyres and I estimate that we would have taken quite a lot of time out from all the cars with softs. Some sections of this stage were very muddy already before the cars (roadsides are very silty there and walking spectators and local tractors had carried a lot of silt on the road) and there would have been pretty big differences. So, Tommi was just coming in the office after the cancellation and I was complaining him that I am not happy because this stage was cancelled and there is less rain on next stage. So, he gave the interview right after he taked to me, that is why he was a bit concerned. We knew that rain is definitely hitting the frist section of the next stage and heavily last stage. It was even better, slightly more than half of the next stage had quite decent rain and final stage was also moderate rain. Lappi was initilally slower, because he had no experience with these tires and as he learned, he got much, much quicker!

Afternoon loop was quite easy. Temperatures were low, roads were very muddy, apart from first stage, which was cleaner for frist cars and then turend much worse. Middle stage had a bit less rain and final stage had a lot of rain when our cars were on the stage again. Neuville and Ogier were extremely lucky here, there was 15 minutes of just a drizzle or nearly no rain and after that moderate to heavy rain again. And rain arrived from start and covered the stage. So, road was dry enough for Neuville to use softs and wet enough for Ogier not to loose much. It was much worse for later cars as the road tured much more wet, you can see it from Loeb-s times. And wets were alos perfect choice for city stage. So, good day.

It was clear by Saturday evening that promised heavy rain and possible snow is not the case and we have possibility of light rain only. In the morning it was all clear. Middle part of first stage was still relatively wet and there was some drizzle/light rain also, ended not much before the stage. Next stage was dry/damp, but temps were very low, so drying was very slow process. So, for the first stage, I do not know how Loeb was able to set such a good time! I think it was the combination of Loeb, Citroen and very smooth tarmac, they have been very fast on such a stuff all the time. I am quite sure that mixed soft and hard was the best option for the stage. (The tires that Ott had for the next stage).

Afternoon loop was finally easyone. No problems.

So, weekend went well, apart from the fact that some spectators stole one of my temperature sensors from my meteo crew around Sunday noon. Good luck for them, there is no producer name on the sensor and without app its just a small plastic box with some lights blinking and one wire hanging... Same happened in Portugal, good luck for those morons as well… luckily I still have some spares for Australia

So, couple of days for rest and then there will be long flight to the other side of the world. See you there!

[mknight]

Gj and thx for the write up.
For me it was quite surprising how small the differences between top 6 or so cars actually were on saturday, given the different tire choices.