¡España ha vuelto!
After a short absence of three years, the World Rally Championship is back in Spain – a nation it first visited in 1991 and pretty much never stopped going to until it fell off the calendar in 2022.
OK, the upcoming challenge is new – we’re headed for the Canary Islands, specifically Gran Canaria, instead of the coastline of the mainland.
But Spain is Spain, and with that in mind we thought we’d look back at eight of the best editions of this rally in years gone by.
It’s not ranked, and yes there are some events we could have included instead – immediately thinking of Carlos Sainz’s dream home win in 1992, and of course the scene of Ott Tänak’s world title in 2019 – but we can’t write about every single edition!
So with that, let’s dive right in. How many of these do you remember?
2002
Tommi Mäkinen had his iconic engine dramas that led to him and co-driver Kaj Lindström filling their Subaru up with water collected from somebody’s swimming pool.
Carlos Sainz, without Luis Moya due to a testing accident, lost a wheel after crashing into a spectator car parked stupidly close to the side of the stage.
And Richard Burns turned in one of his best Peugeot performances to finish second, splitting the dominant Frenchmen in the process.
But you don’t remember any of that, do you?
Gilles Panizzi’s donut at the iconic Viladrau hairpin was not just one of the best Rally Spain moments, but one of the best WRC moments full stop.
That glorious pirouette alone earns 2002 a mention in this list.
2003
But what about the year after? 2003 yielded yet another Panizzi win – and arguably a more impressive one.
After two days of flat-out racing, Sébastien Loeb was primed to take victory. Markko Märtin was in pursuit, but with a 20.8s cushion things looked good for the Citroën driver.
But then the rain came. Hard.
Richard Burns was the first to be caught out, hitting a bank and breaking his steering. Retirement beckoned.
This was a dream scenario for Petter Solberg, who climbed from 10th to fifth (thanks to the Pirelli’s superiority in the wet) and snared valuable championship points ahead of the season finale in GB.
Further ahead, Märtin lost his brakes which cost him second to Panizzi. Loeb meanwhile was sailing through.
But his choice to take a hard compound tire for the final three stages was a mistake. He lost a massive 44s to Panizzi on the last test, allowing the Peugeot driver to sneak ahead and claim the final win of his WRC career.
1996
Far from the most iconic Rally Spain of the ’90s (spoiler alert: that’s coming later…), the 1996 event was significant in that it brought the curtain down on the Group A era.
Indeed on the eve of the rally, both Subaru and Ford unveiled the World Rally Car versions of their Impreza and Escort Cosworth steeds.
But Group A went out with one last hurrah and a mega battle between Subaru team-mates Colin McRae and Piero Liatti; Liatti seeking his first WRC win, McRae second place in the championship after Carlos Sainz went out on stage two.
Heading into the last stage, five seconds is all that separated the two Imprezas. And with the manufacturers’ title secured, there would be no team orders.
Liatti set the benchmark, and was six seconds faster than new world champion Tommi Mäkinen. But McRae was quicker still – finding an extra two seconds to take victory by just seven.
2013
Victories often came easy for Sébastien Ogier during his maiden championship-winning season in 2013 – but Spain certainly didn’t.
Recently crowned world champion at the previous round in France, the VW ace took the lead after Friday but a puncture on Saturday left him a frustrated fourth heading into the final day.
This was the time when Spain’s round of the world championship was mixed surface, so even though Dani Sordo was just 1.6s shy of Ogier’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, many saw the Finn as victory favorite as the rally transitioned to gravel.
But in the end, neither would prosper. Sordo broke his suspension and Latvala was slowed by a broken fuel pipe. Hindered yes, but regardless the Ogier storm was brewing.
Obliterating the field on the gravel stages, the world champion took the lead with just one test left and cruised to a victory that crowned Volkswagen manufacturers champions for the first time.
Two years later, Ogier would not be so supreme…
2015
It still has to go down as one of the most bizarre stop-line interviews of all time.
There Andreas Mikkelsen was – delighted to have held Latvala off for what he thought to be second place.
But then the news filtered through: “Ogier has crashed in the powerstage!”
“Is he going?” a puzzled Mikkelsen asks.
“He’s in the barrier… he’s taken a wheel off! You are the winner! You have won your first ever world rally!”
Mikkelsen looks over to co-driver Ola Fløene, who is already in tears. It was one of the most bizarre ways to win a WRC rally – particularly for the first time – and all because the man who made no mistakes (Ogier) had pushed too hard for powerstage points, and jeopardized the bigger prize.
As for the rest of rally… Robert Kubica led for a point before he got two punctures (provoked by an impact), Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans both crashed – what a lineup that would be if M-Sport had it today, 10 years on! – but that was about it. That one Mikkelsen/Ogier moment is what 2015 will forever be remembered for.
1999
Talk about putting noses out of joint. What Philippe Bugalski and Citroën achieved in 1999 was sublime – winning the rally overall in a Xsara Kit Car, not designed to the top-spec World Rally Car regulations.
Now Bugalski did have an advantage with a superior power to weight ratio in his front-wheel-drive, naturally-aspirated machine – but it was still quite the achievement that, unsurprisingly, frustrated the top teams and drivers; McRae and Sainz in particular.
Bugalski was inch-perfect though, inheriting the lead when team-mate Jesús Puras was sidelined with electrical trouble on SS9 and not letting go. It was the first of two victories back-to-back (the other in Corsica) that simply had to be mentioned for its historical significance.
No driver has won a WRC rally outright in a front-wheel-drive car since.
2018
The signs had been there earlier in the 2018 season that Sébastien Loeb still had the magic touch. But his final ever rally for Citroën, Rally Spain, was the ultimate confirmation.
Perhaps this was the rally that got away from Jari-Matti Latvala. The Toyota driver led an extremely close battle into Sunday’s four stages but, like everyone, was caught by Loeb’s inspired choice to take hard compound tires for stages that dried faster than almost everyone anticipated.
Latvala was Loeb’s chaser-in-chief with two stages left, but an SS17 puncture dumped him to sixth and left him distraught.
Ogier was the driver who could sense Loeb, now without a tire advantage, was there for the taking. The M-Sport Ford driver slashed 7.2s from his great rival’s lead on the penultimate test to set up a powerstage thriller.
Needing to make up 3.6s, Ogier went on the attack but so did Loeb. Ogier was quicker but it wasn’t enough – Loeb took a feel-good win by just 2.9s; his first in five years.
1995
‘Controversial’ would be the best word to describe 1995’s instalment of Rally Spain.
A rally that eventually became all about Subaru kicked off with Toyota reign – Juha Kankkunen the surprise leader by a handsome 22s at the end of day one.
The Finn built that lead up to almost a minute after 15 of 23 stages, but mishearing a pacenote from co-driver Nicky Grist, Kankkunen crashed and retired at the end of the day.
Which of course is when Toyota’s turbos were taken for investigation by the FIA and their infamous cheat was uncovered.
All that had meant Carlos Sainz led his world title rival and team-mate Colin McRae by just eight seconds.
And with Toyota’s disqualification, from the entire season and the next, not known at this time, Subaru also had the manufacturers’ situation to consider.
David Richards therefore called the fight off – instructing that Sainz and McRae finished as they were. But this was like a red rag to a bull for McRae, who grabbed the lead off Sainz and went on to win the rally on the road.
However the threat of there being no car for him to drive at the RAC finale helped convince McRae to check in one minute late and give the lead back to Sainz. But not before kicking down trash cans and letting the broadcast media know exactly what he thought about the situation.
It’s unlikely Rally Islas Canarias will be quite as dramatic, but we’d be here for it if it were!
