The 42º Rally RACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada, the fourth round of the 2006 World Rally Championship season, took place from March 24 to 26, 2006.

Report

The rally was the first all-tarmac event of the season. The event was marred by an accident in the JWRC category which resulted in the

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of the co-driver Jörg Bastuck. Eventually the rally saw the second win of the season for the reigning world champion

Sébastien Loeb Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ...

, although the early pacesetter was

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Marcus Grönholm Marcus Ulf Johan Grönholm (born February 5, 1968) is a Finnish former rally and rallycross driver, being part of a family of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland lineage. His son, Niclas Grönholm, is an upcoming FIA World Rallycross Cha ...

. After winning the first three stages, he suffered turbo problems on stage five but fought back from tenth place to eventually take third place. Ahead of Grönholm was the first podium for Spain's

Dani Sordo Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland. Career Sordo began in motocross wh ...

with a fast run that was publicly acknowledged by Loeb. Further down the field, the twice previous

Rally Catalunya The Rally Catalunya (formerly: Rallye Catalunya) is a rally competition held in Catalonia region of Spain, on the World Rally Championship schedule. Now held on the wide, smooth and sweeping asphalt roads around the town of Salou, Costa Daura ...

winner

Gilles Panizzi Gilles Panizzi (born 19 September 1965) is a former French rally driver. Panizzi was born in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes. Like many of his fellow rally racing countrymen, Panizzi spent a great deal of his developmental driving year ...

disappointed with a tenth-place finish. Panizzi promptly left the

Red Bull Škoda Team Red Bull Škoda Team is an Austrian private rally team that participated in the World Rally Championship in the season. It was managed by BRR - Baumschlager Rallye & Racing and sponsored by the Red Bull brand. The team participated with four ...

and has not competed in a

WRC WRC may refer to: Broadcasting stations * WRC-TV, a television station (virtual channel 4, digital channel 34) licensed to Washington, D.C., United States * Several radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area: ** WTEM, a radio station (980 AM) l ...

round since.

Results

Retirements

Xavier Pons Xavier "Xevi" Pons Puigdillers (born 21 January 1980) is a Spanish rally driver who competed in the World Rally Championship from 2003 to 2014. Career Pons started his racing career on motorcycles and won the Spanish enduro national championship ...

- accident (SS10) *

Luca Betti Luca Betti (born 22 February 1978) is an Italian rally driver who is currently competing in the 2013 World Rally Championship season in the WRC-2 class. He began rallying in the WRC at the 2000 Rally GB and has entered various rallies since, part ...

- accident (SS12) * Julien Pressac - engine (SS12) * Barry Clark - withdrawn (SS2) *

Aaron Burkart Aaron Nikolai Burkart (born 20 September 1982 in Singen, Baden-Württemberg) is a German rally driver. He is the 2010 Junior World Rally Champion. Career Burkart began rallying in 2002. In 2006, he began competing in the Junior World Rally ...

- accident (SS2)

Special stages

All dates and times are

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UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time ** B ...

) from 24 to 25 March 2006 and

CEST CEST or cest may refer to: * Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone * Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory * Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...

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UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

) in 26 March 2006.

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Manufacturers' championship

References

Catalunya Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the northe ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Catalunya Rally