2008 Rally Catalunya

2008 Rally Catalunya
44è Rally RACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada
Round 12 of the 2008 World Rally Championship
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Rally winner Sébastien Loeb.
Rally baseSalou
Dates runOctober 2 – 5 2008
Stages18 (352.87 km; 219.26 miles)
Stage surfaceTarmac
Overall distance1,359.96 km (845.04 miles)
Statistics
Crews69 at start, 48 at finish
Overall results
Overall winnerFrance Sébastien Loeb
France Citroën Total World Rally Team
Citroën C4 WRC

The 2008 Rally Catalunya, officially 44è Rally RACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada, was the 44th Rally Catalunya and the 12th round of the 2008 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place during October 2–5, 2008 and consisted of 18 special stages.

The rally was won by Citroën Total World Rally Team's Sébastien Loeb ahead of his teammate Dani Sordo. This was Citroën's third double win in a row, after previous one-two finishes in Germany and New Zealand. BP Ford World Rally Team's Mikko Hirvonen and François Duval took comfortable third and fourth positions, although only battled with each other and never managed to challenge the Citroëns. Duval eased off in one stage to let Hirvonen, who continued his fight for the drivers' title with Loeb, to take the third place and one extra point.

Subaru World Rally Team's Petter Solberg fought for fifth place with Urmo Aava until the penultimate stage, when Aava retired after making a mistake and breaking his Citroën C4 WRC's suspension. The battle for sixth place went down to the wire, with Stobart M-Sport Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala edging out Subaru's Chris Atkinson by 1.1 seconds. Andreas Mikkelsen drove his privateer Ford Focus RS WRC 07 to eighth place, taking the second points finish of his career.

Results

Pos. Driver Co-driver Car Time Difference Points
WRC
1. France Sébastien Loeb Monaco Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 3:21:17.4 0.0 10
2. Spain Dani Sordo Spain Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 3:21:42.3 24.9 8
3. Finland Mikko Hirvonen Finland Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3:22:19.9 1:02.5 6
4. Belgium François Duval France Patrick Pivato Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3:22:28.2 1:10.8 5
5. Norway Petter Solberg United Kingdom Phil Mills Subaru Impreza WRC 2008 3:24:44.8 3:27.4 4
6. Finland Jari-Matti Latvala Finland Miikka Anttila Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3:25:21.2 4:03.8 3
7. Australia Chris Atkinson Belgium Stéphane Prévot Subaru Impreza WRC 2008 3:25:22.3 4:04.9 2
8. Norway Andreas Mikkelsen Norway Ola Floene Ford Focus RS WRC 07 3:26:37.0 5:19.6 1

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver MON
Monaco
SWE
Sweden
MEX
Mexico
ARG
Argentina
JOR
Jordan
ITA
Italy
GRC
Greece
TUR
Turkey
FIN
Finland
GER
Germany
NZL
New Zealand
ESP
Spain
FRA
France
JPN
Japan
GBR
United Kingdom
 Pts 
1 France Sébastien Loeb 1 Ret. 1 1 10 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 96
2 Finland Mikko Hirvonen 2 2 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 4 3 3 84
3 Spain Dani Sordo 11 6 17 3 2 5 5 4 4 2 2 2 59
4 Australia Chris Atkinson 3 21 2 2 3 6 Ret. 13 3 6 Ret. 7 42
5 Finland Jari-Matti Latvala 12 1 3 15 7 3 7 2 39 9 Ret. 6 37
6 Norway Petter Solberg 5 4 12 Ret. Ret. 10 2 6 6 5 4 5 36
7 Norway Henning Solberg 9 13 5 Ret. 4 7 8 5 5 7 9 11 22
8 Italy Gigi Galli 6 3 Ret. 7 8 4 Ret. Ret. Ret. Ret. Inj. Inj. 17
9 Belgium François Duval 4 3 Ret. 4 16
10 United Kingdom Matthew Wilson 10 Ret. 6 Ret. 5 12 6 7 9 12 17 9 12
11 Estonia Urmo Aava 18 Ret. 8 4 Ret. 16 8 5 35 11
12 Argentina Federico Villagra 7 6 6 14 13 9 Ret. 8 12 9
13 Zimbabwe Conrad Rautenbach Ret. 16 16 4 26 13 10 8 10 10 Ret. Ret. 6
14 Norway Andreas Mikkelsen 5 Ret. 19 12 11 8 5
15 Finland Toni Gardemeister Ret. 7 Ret. Ret. Ret. Ret. 9 Ret. 8 10 7 13 5
16 Sweden Per-Gunnar Andersson 8 Ret. Ret. 24 Ret. 9 11 Ret. Ret. 15 6 32 4
17 France Jean-Marie Cuoq 7 2
Finland Matti Rantanen 7
19 Finland Juho Hänninen 8 21 13 14 29 1
France Sébastien Ogier 8 11 22 36 19 Ret.
Austria Andreas Aigner 31 8 14 11 Ret. Ret.
Pos Driver MON
Monaco
SWE
Sweden
MEX
Mexico
ARG
Argentina
JOR
Jordan
ITA
Italy
GRC
Greece
TUR
Turkey
FIN
Finland
GER
Germany
NZL
New Zealand
ESP
Spain
FRA
France
JPN
Japan
GBR
United Kingdom
Pts
Key
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Did not finish (Ret)
Black Excluded (EX)
Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Cancelled (C)
Blank Withdrew entry from
the event (WD)

Manufacturers' championship

Rank Team Event Total
points
MON
Monaco
SWE
Sweden
MEX
Mexico
ARG
Argentina
JOR
Jordan
ITA
Italy
GRC
Greece
TUR
Turkey
FIN
Finland
GER
Germany
NZL
New Zealand
ESP
Spain
FRA
France
JPN
Japan
GBR
United Kingdom
1 France Citroën Total World Rally Team 11 4 10 16 9 14 15 11 15 18 18 18 - - - 159
2 United Kingdom BP Ford World Rally Team 8 18 11 7 13 14 10 18 9 7 6 11 - - - 132
3 Japan Subaru World Rally Team 10 6 9 8 6 3 8 3 9 7 5 6 - - - 80
4 United Kingdom Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team 8 8 3 3 7 5 3 4 4 6 0 4 - - - 55
5 Argentina Munchi's Ford World Rally Team 0 0 6 4 4 2 0 3 0 0 3 0 - - - 22
6 Japan Suzuki World Rally Team 2 3 0 1 0 1 3 0 2 1 7 0 - - - 20