The Rally de España has got underway with a ceremonial start in the centre of the holiday resort of Salou in Spain, located around 100 kilometres south of Barcelona on the famous Costa Daurada. Ahead of the crews lie 18 stages and 353 competitive kilometres, to be contested on fast and flowing asphalt roads over the next three days. Only two asphalt rallies have been held so far this year, in Monte Carlo and Germany, but these are far from typical World Rally Championship events. Spain marks the first event featuring ‘normal’ asphalt roads all year, so once again it will be an exciting debut for the SX4 WRC and its drivers Toni Gardemeister and P-G Andersson.

An essential part of the preparation for this rally was the shakedown test this morning, on which the drivers were able to finalise the set-up of their SX4 WRCs using roads that are very similar to the actual stages. Both cars completed several runs of the shakedown stage successfully before preparing for the ceremonial start in downtown Salou at 20:00.

The weather on the Catalunya Rally is always a question mark: the ceremonial start last year was cancelled as the result of a sudden downpour. This year though conditions have been warm throughout the day, with the weather expected to stay dry for the opening leg tomorrow, which gets underway at 07:30.

Car news – Suzuki SX4 WRC n.11 (Gardemeister) and n.12 (Andersson):


Both cars completed several runs over the shakedown test this morning in order to gain maximum development time and adapt the SX4 WRC to the specific demands of the Spanish stages. Some more new evolutions have been introduced to the SX4 WRC to improve its performance on sealed surfaces, particularly regarding the differential and dampers. The car is now smoother and more progressive to drive, coping well with the rapid direction changes that will be required both on this rally and the next one in Corsica in less than a week’s time.

Gardemeister and Andersson made a number of changes to the car set-up throughout the four-hour shakedown session, with the aim of fine-tuning the SX4 WRC to their individual driving styles and Pirelli’s asphalt control tyres.
 
Driver news:


Toni Gardemeister: “For some reason this rally is not at all how I remember it. The roads seem flatter and more twisty: not to the extent of Corsica but getting that way. My car generally seems good and well-suited to these roads, as it is very manoeuvrable. I was quite busy during the shakedown as we made quite a lot of changes. With every rally, we are still learning plenty of new things. Now I think we have a good package and we can start the rally by pushing hard tomorrow. I think we can score points by the finish if everything goes well.”

P-G Andersson: “We’ve put some improvements on the car since Germany, and the differential changes in particular make it easier to drive. It feels smoother and more direct; already less nervous than it did in Germany. To do well here, it’s clear that the key will be to find a good rhythm very early on and stick to it. The field we face in Spain is extremely competitive, but from what I can see of the car so far I believe we can aim for a points finish. The most important factor will be the reliability.”
 
Team news:


Shusuke Inagaki, Suzuki World Rally Team Director: “Spain will be the first conventional asphalt event of the year for us, so it will give us plenty to think about. We start with the base set-up from Rallye Deutschland – which I think will give us a good foundation to work from – and hopefully we can continue making progress on this extremely demanding surface over the weekend. The most important thing is to work methodically and take everything one step at a time in order to achieve our goals.”