WRC: Loeb wins Rally Catalunya, Ogier takes championship lead

Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena are the winners of the 54th RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada, the penultimate round of the 2018 World Rally Championship. The best ever pair in the history of the World Rally Championship scored their 79th WRC victory together.

Behind this glorious victory of the pair in the #10 Citroen C3 WRC, the championship fight became even closer than before with Sebastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville leaving Spain with three-point gap ahead of season’s finale in Australia. Ogier finished second at Rally Catalunya and second in the Power Stage, collecting 22 points and demoting Neuville to the second place in the championship.

Neuville finished fourth in Spain and didn’t get points in the Power Stage. On the last stage of the rally, M-Sport’s Elfyn Evans took the third place from Neuville.

Sebastien Loeb’s #10 Citroen C3 WRC

The other point scorers in Spain are Dani Sordo (Hyundai), Ott Tanak (Toyota), Esapekka Lappi (Toyota), Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota), Craig Breen (Citroen) and Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai). Ott Tanak is going to Australia with 181 points on his account and he still has a mathematical chance to take the title.

In the Manufacturers’ standings, Toyota leads with 331 points, just twelve more than Hyundai. M-Sport is third with 306 points and all three teams can take the title in Australia.

Sebastien Ogier is going to Australia as the championship leader

Besides Sebastien Loeb, another former world champion made a one-off return to WRC in Spain – Petter Solberg. He was representing Volkswagen Motorsport with their new VW Polo GTI R5, finishing third in the WRC2 classification.

Kalle Rovanpera (Škoda Motorsport) is the WRC2 winner in a Škoda Fabia R5, in front of his teammate Jan Kopecky, who secured the WRC2 championship title.