2008 Rally Catalunya
# 2008 Rally Catalunya

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. | Sébastien Loeb | Daniel Elena | Citroën C4 WRC | 3:21:17.4 | 0.0 | 10 |
| 2. | Dani Sordo | Marc Marti | Citroën C4 WRC | 3:21:42.3 | 24.9 | 8 |
| 3. | Mikko Hirvonen | Jarmo Lehtinen | Ford Focus RS WRC 07 | 3:22:19.9 | 1:02.5 | 6 |
| 4. | François Duval | Patrick Pivato | Ford Focus RS WRC 07 | 3:22:28.2 | 1:10.8 | 5 |
| 5. | Petter Solberg | Phil Mills | Subaru Impreza WRC 2008 | 3:24:44.8 | 3:27.4 | 4 |
| 6. | Jari-Matti Latvala | Miikka Anttila | Ford Focus RS WRC 07 | 3:25:21.2 | 4:03.8 | 3 |
| 7. | Chris Atkinson | Stéphane Prévot | Subaru Impreza WRC 2008 | 3:25:22.3 | 4:04.9 | 2 |
| 8. | Andreas Mikkelsen | 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 | SWE | MEX | ARG | JOR | ITA | GRC | TUR | FIN | GER | NZL | ESP | FRA | JPN | GBR | Pts |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Sébastien Loeb | 1 | Ret. | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | | 96 |
| 2 | Mikko Hirvonen | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | | | | 84 |
| 3 | Dani Sordo | 11 | 6 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | | | 59 |
| 4 | Chris Atkinson | 3 | 21 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | Ret. | 13 | 3 | 6 | Ret. | 7 | | | | 42 |
| 5 | Jari-Matti Latvala | 12 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 39 | 9 | Ret. | 6 | | | | 37 |
| 6 | Petter Solberg | 5 | 4 | 12 | Ret. | Ret. | 10 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | | | | 36 |
| 7 | Henning Solberg | 9 | 13 | 5 | Ret. | 4 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | | | | 22 |
| 8 | Gigi Galli | 6 | 3 | Ret. | 7 | 8 | 4 | Ret. | Ret. | Ret. | Ret. | Inj. | Inj. | | | | 17 |
| 9 | François Duval | 4 | | | | | | | | | 3 | Ret. | 4 | | | | 16 |
| 10 | Matthew Wilson | 10 | Ret. | 6 | Ret. | 5 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 17 | 9 | | | | 12 |
| 11 | Urmo Aava | | 18 | | | Ret. | 8 | 4 | Ret. | 16 | 8 | 5 | 35 | | | | 11 |
| 12 | Federico Villagra | | | 7 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 13 | 9 | Ret. | | 8 | 12 | | | | 9 |
| 13 | Conrad Rautenbach | Ret. | 16 | 16 | 4 | 26 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | Ret. | Ret. | | | | 6 |
| 14 | Andreas Mikkelsen | | 5 | | | | Ret. | | 19 | 12 | 11 | | 8 | | | | 5 |
| 15 | Toni Gardemeister | Ret. | 7 | Ret. | Ret. | Ret. | Ret. | 9 | Ret. | 8 | 10 | 7 | 13 | | | | 5 |
| 16 | Per-Gunnar Andersson | 8 | Ret. | Ret. | 24 | Ret. | 9 | 11 | Ret. | Ret. | 15 | 6 | 32 | | | | 4 |
| 17 | Jean-Marie Cuoq | 7 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 |
| 17 | Matti Rantanen | | | | | | | | | 7 | | | | | | | 2 |
| 19 | Juho Hänninen | | 8 | | | | | 21 | | 13 | | 14 | 29 | | | | 1 |
| 19 | Sébastien Ogier | | | 8 | | 11 | 22 | | | 36 | 19 | | Ret. | | | | 1 |
| 19 | Andreas Aigner | | 31 | | 8 | | | 14 | 11 | Ret. | | Ret. | | | | | 1 |
| Pos | Driver | MON | SWE | MEX | ARG | JOR | ITA | GRC | TUR | FIN | GER | NZL | ESP | FRA | JPN | GBR | Pts |

Key :

| Colour | Result |
| - | - |
| Gold | Winner |
| Silver | 2nd place |
| Bronze | 3rd place |
| Green | Points finish |
| Blue | Non-points finish |
| Blue | Non-classified finish (NC) |
| Purple | Did not finish (Ret) |
| Black | Excluded (EX) |
| Black | Disqualified (DSQ) |
| White | Did not start (DNS) |
| White | Cancelled (C) |
| Blank | Withdrew entry from the event (WD) |

### Manufacturers' championship

| Rank | Team | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Event | Total points |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Rank | Team | MON | SWE | MEX | ARG | JOR | ITA | GRC | TUR | FIN | GER | NZL | ESP | FRA | JPN | GBR | Total points |
| 1 | Citroën Total World Rally Team | 11 | 4 | 10 | 16 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 18 | 18 | - | - | - | 159 |
| 2 | BP Ford World Rally Team | 8 | 18 | 11 | 7 | 13 | 14 | 10 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 11 | - | - | - | 132 |
| 3 | Subaru World Rally Team | 10 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 6 | - | - | - | 80 |
| 4 | Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 4 | - | - | - | 55 |
| 5 | Munchi's Ford World Rally Team | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | - | - | - | 22 |
| 6 | Suzuki World Rally Team | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 0 | - | - | - | 20 |
