The 1999 Rally Catalunya (formally the 35th Rallye Catalunya - Costa Brava) was a

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

event for

rally cars Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sports ...

that was held over three days between 19 and 21 April 1999. It marked the 35th running of the

Rally Catalunya The Rally Catalunya (formerly: Rallye Catalunya) is a rally competition held in the Catalonia region of Spain, on the World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned an ...

, and was the fifth round of the

1999 World Rally Championship season The 1999 World Rally Championship was the 27th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. Tommi Mäkinen won his fourth drivers' world championship driving for Mitsubishi, ahead of Richard Burns and Didier ...

. The 1999 event was based in the town of

Lloret de Mar Lloret de Mar (; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastal town in Catalonia, Spain. It is south of Girona and northeast of Barcelona. With a population of 38,402 in 2021, it is the second largest town in the Selva (comarca), Selva comarc ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and was contested over nineteen special stages, covering a total competitive distance of 396.01km (246.07 miles).

Colin McRae Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007), was a British rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title. At 27, ...

was the defending rally winner, as was Ford Motor Co Ltd, having won the previous two rallies.

Tommi Makinen Tommi is a masculine Finnish given name. Traditional Finnish diminutive of “Thomas”. Thomas comes from the Aramaic name Thoma, meaning ‘twin’. Used as a formal given name since 20th century, reinforced by the English Tommy. Notable people ...

lead the championship with twenty three points; three more than McRae. The event was won by

Philippe Bugalski Philippe Bugalski (12 June 1963 Cusset – 10 August 2012) was a French rally driver. Bugalski became a works Renault driver in the French Rally Championship in 1994. In 1998, he joined the works Citroën team, with whom he won the French natio ...

, driving a Citroën Xsara Kit Car that was not entered for the full World Championship. This would foreshadow an overhaul of the regulations for next season to the detriment of the two-wheel drive

kit cars Kit may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kit (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Kit (surname), a list of people Places * Kit, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province * Kit Hill, C ...

Background

Entry List

The following crews were set to enter the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, as well as

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

entries that were not registered to score points in the manufacturer's championship. Twelve were entered under

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived touring cars for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles wer ...

regulations to compete in the World Rally Championship's Manufacturers' Championship.

Itinerary

All dates and times are

EAT Eating (also known as consuming) is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive – ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...

Report

Overall

Summary

The winner was

aboard a Citroën Xsara Kit Car, an unprecedented event in the world championship, since he won a front-wheel drive car, something that had not happened in years. The Kit Cars, which were supposed to be inferior compared to the all-wheel drive of the World Rally Cars, prevailed in asphalt rallies, first in Catalonia and later in the Corsica Rally that same year. The great weight/power ratio, accompanied by the good condition of the road surface and the good weather conditions in the Spanish test, made the Kit Cars prevail over their rivals. Although Citroën did not officially compete in 1999, it had been developing the Citroën Xsara Kit Car for two years and after several tests in the nationals of Spain and France, it lined up two Xsaras for Bugalski and Jesús Puras in the Rally Catalunya. The Frenchman won the test, achieving the first victory of his career in the world championship. His victory aboard the Citroën Xsara Kit Car, a front-wheel drive car, raised some complaints among the official teams. Second was Didier Auriol with a Toyota Corolla WRC, which had already won the previous year, nothing could do against Bugalski's Xsara, although he finished half a minute behind his compatriot and third was Tommi Mäkinen, further away, with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI , who was penalized one minute but kept third place ahead of Freddy Loix. The race could have been a one-two for Citroën, since on the first day it was dominated by Jesús Puras with the other Xsara Kit Car, who scored four scratches and led the race until in the first section of the second day he suffered an electrical fault in his car and had to leave. Bugalski relieved Puras at the head of the race and kept it until the end. Among the most prominent retirements were Carlos Sainz, Auriol's teammate, who retired in the last section due to a fault with the alternator belt and Colin McRae who retired after the second day. It was also the debut in the world championship for the Frenchman

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

who ran with a Citroën Saxo but did not end up suffering an accident in section eight. One of the most controversial moments outside the race was the confrontation on the sets of

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

, which was broadcasting the race, between Jesús Puras and Juanjo Lacalle, Sainz's manager. Puras defended himself against the accusations of Luis Moya, Sainz's co-driver, of having trained illegally, and had a small verbal dispute with Lacalle.

Classification

Special Stages