The penultimate round is complete, and the title battle goes all the way to Wales. Catalunya proved a tough adversary for the drivers this week, with less than 50% of the starters reaching the finish.
Of those who finished,
@space_wadet was the quickest, taking his 2nd win in a row in the Subaru.
@galahad took P2 with another strong performance in his Subaru, and BelgianWaffle78 took P3, making it a clean sweep for Subaru on the podium.
| Rank | DisplayName | Vehicle | Time | DifferenceToFirst |
| 1 | Space_Wadet | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:14:42 | 0:00:00 |
| 2 | j0se-2501 | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:15:51 | 0:01:09 |
| 3 | BelgianWaffle78 | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:16:01 | 0:01:19 |
| 4 | Devilsoldier96 | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:16:32 | 0:01:50 |
| 5 | Hasnain282 | SUBARU Legacy RS | 1:16:41 | 0:01:59 |
| 6 | JabierFailure | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:17:06 | 0:02:24 |
| 7 | Speedster502 | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:18:04 | 0:03:22 |
| 8 | furzelburzel | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:18:11 | 0:03:28 |
| 9 | GOTMAXPOWER | Mitsubishi Galant VR4 | 1:19:30 | 0:04:48 |
| 10 | miljan426 | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:20:03 | 0:05:21 |
| 11 | ABarber95 | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:23:11 | 0:08:28 |
In the championship race, it's
@RYAN who retains top spot, with a 36 point advantage, it's his championship to lose. JabierFailure sits P2, but the fight is tight, with
@Hasnain282 and
@Speedster502 hot on his heels, just 5 points separating P2 to P4.
| Rank | DisplayName | PointsAccumulated |
| 1 | RDA-JETS | 235 |
| 2 | JabierFailure | 199 |
| 3 | Hasnain282 | 195 |
| 4 | Speedster502 | 194 |
| 5 | GOTMAXPOWER | 180 |
| 6 | Space_Wadet | 161 |
| 7 | Alex_Iv73 | 146 |
| 8 | HajduPeti | 131 |
| 9 | j0se-2501 | 126 |
| 10 | magpieracer | 125 |
| 11 | mistrelwood | 121 |
| 12 | furzelburzel | 113 |
| 13 | Dreadmed | 104 |
| 14 | ABarber95 | 102 |
| 15 | NathannW94 | 99 |
| 16 | thewrathofwhat | 95 |
| 17 | BelgianWaffle78 | 91 |
| 18 | fourpegs | 76 |
| 19 | RuggishThuggish | 73 |
| 20 | RedFox14rus | 72 |
| 21 | BenAFC14 | 68 |
| 22 | tomo875 | 63 |
| 23 | miljan426 | 63 |
| 24 | half_sourly | 61 |
| 25 | Devilsoldier96 | 59 |
| 26 | vilkku394 | 58 |
| 27 | frankiestail | 57 |
| 28 | Voloha1954 | 56 |
| 29 | c07aea92ce6efb26 | 56 |
| 30 | Gomaevo | 48 |
| 31 | darrenersmit82 | 47 |
| 32 | AhoTerunen | 47 |
| 33 | micmacbat | 43 |
| 34 | WinterOx2367652 | 40 |
| 35 | kunihiroT92 | 34 |
| 36 | DarkSmaile977 | 34 |
| 37 | 9d1c43eb87fa5a79 | 33 |
| 38 | BrosephMcCracken | 31 |
| 39 | Potaatis1 | 31 |
| 40 | Neomone | 30 |
| 41 | tikotaker | 26 |
| 42 | Unholy_Knifer | 24 |
| 43 | CheetahsMeow | 23 |
| 44 | Rschhaartoupet | 23 |
| 45 | WRC Player | 23 |
| 46 | Hoganloaf | 22 |
| 47 | skolll-T_T | 22 |
| 48 | Takashi_IRINATSU | 21 |
| 49 | TheAudioPulse | 19 |
| 50 | sinotov2008 | 19 |
| 51 | WRC Player | 18 |
| 52 | Akkuschreiber | 17 |
| 53 | mmf1_PS | 17 |
| 54 | SM_Limbo | 16 |
| 55 | cvbdrfdpf8ti | 14 |
| 56 | gtmen3004 | 13 |
| 57 | yengecyunusc | 13 |
| 58 | To_FasT4_You_Bud | 12 |
| 59 | 0002kitty | 12 |
| 60 | widdler | 11 |
| 61 | lebowski2 | 11 |
| 62 | BrighToon1961 | 9 |
| 63 | yasun2020 | 9 |
| 64 | Dino233 | 9 |
| 65 | Jeuson95 | 8 |
| 66 | DaniB58 | 7 |
| 67 | Sw1ftySwift | 7 |
| 68 | WRC Player | 7 |
| 69 | cortecz | 6 |
| 70 | Grigory18rus | 5 |
| 71 | Ujhuuu8iolk | 5 |
| 72 | noro14 | 5 |
| 73 | Meadow142 | 4 |
| 74 | MaraV1 | 4 |
| 75 | Hultberg420 | 3 |
| 76 | emiliojes | 3 |
| 77 | SharkyOB | 1 |
| 78 | vaskildo | 1 |
| 79 | BladeRunnerDecks | 1 |
| 80 | Jam_Fallon | 0 |
| 81 | LagacyRS | 0 |
| 82 | WPatrick-22 | 0 |
| 83 | juniorjohan | 0 |
| 84 | MasaTaroWRC | 0 |
| 85 | P308R | 0 |
| 86 | Houskic | 0 |
| 87 | EeAyisAss | 0 |
| 88 | moemoekyuuun | 0 |
| 89 | TaldirokBad9327 | 0 |
| 90 | Tbk7_R | 0 |
| 91 | anasterion00 | 0 |
| 92 | FiveHoleCole | 0 |
| 93 | sarukaiseki31 | 0 |
| 94 | yuzabulow | 0 |
| 95 | DaaaneLA | 0 |
| 96 | KeccaA_RacinG | 0 |
In the manufacturers standing, Ford of course are already champions, but Subaru, with a commanding points haul in Spain, leap past Mitsubishi and clear by 25 points, Toyota pick up 12 points and have an outside chance at catching Mitsubishi.
| Rank | Manufacturer | Points |
| 1 | Ford | 231 |
| 2 | Subaru | 136 |
| 3 | Mitsubishi | 111 |
| 4 | Toyota | 75 |
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The real 1995 Rally Catalunya was dramatic and controversial. Subaru celebrated their first ever 1-2-3 finish, but it was marred by team orders which infuriated Colin McRae, at the end of the penultimate day, Subaru boss Dave Richards told his star drivers to hold station, with Carlos Sainz 7 seconds clear at the front. Toyota had started strong, with Kankkunen catapulting into a commanding lead of 22 seconds, which rose to around a minute on day 2, but, SS16 saw him go off the road and roll out of the rally. Mitsubishi also struggled with Tommi Makinen hitting an ambulance and retiring, with Andrea Aghini finishing 5th to keep Mitsubishi at the top of the standings.
Colin McRae upped the pace on the final day, seemingly ignoring team orders to hold station, at the final service, Jimmy McRae told Colin he has to do what he's told, Dave is the boss. Dave Richards alleged to have told Colin that if he won the Spain event, he wouldn't have a car in GB. He duly took a deliberate penalty and came home a disgruntled second place, with Sainz taking the max haul, also unhappy at how he had been given the victory.
Post rally, the controversy kept coming, with Toyota management summoned by the stewards to explain a finding from the cars post rally checks, Didier Auriols car was then disqualified from 4th place, the turbo restrictor found to be non conforming.
Drivers’ championship points
1 Sainz
= McRae 70
3 Kankkunen 62
4 Auriol 51
5 Kenneth Eriksson 48
6 Delecour 46
In the wake of the Spanish event, the findings against Toyota mounted regarding the turbo restrictor and the team was disqualfied from the championship, stripped of all points, along with the drivers, and banned for 1 year, therefore missing the final round and almost all of 1996.
I was lucky that you had issues and that this was the first rally I didn't have any issues or major incidents, otherwise I doubt I could have kept up.
