Citroën Junior Team Shines in the Snow
22/02/2010
Citroën’s number two Sébastien has proven once again that he has making of a future champion, following in the footsteps of six time World Champion, Sébastien Loeb, with Citroën Junior Team driver Sébastien Ogier finishing in a fine fifth place in his first ever Swedish Rally, the first round of the 2010 World Rally Championship (11-14 February 2010).
Meanwhile Kimi Räikkönen, Ogier’s team mate in the Citroën Junior Team, successfully completed the event, the target set for the Formula One World Champion in his debut World Rally Championship Event.
The long third and final day of the Rally Sweden got underway at 05:35. Having arrived at the Hagfors service park from Karlstad, the crews then headed off for five special stages in the north-east of the Värmland province.
Having secured fifth place right from the beginning on SS2, Sébastien Ogier continued his progress while taking care to avoid mistakes. Placed about a minute behind Dani Sordo in fourth and with more than a minute’s cushion over Henning Solberg in sixth, the Frenchman only had to get to the end of the rally to score his first 10 points of the season. “This is a great result to start the season with,” said Ogier. I’d like to thank the entire team, which has done an exceptional job. The first day of the rally went perfectly for us and we quickly got up to a good pace. Afterwards, we just needed to look after our end result. The initial objective was simply to be there at the finish in order to accumulate experience on what was a brand new rally for us. As it is, this fifth place is a result that gives us plenty of confidence for the rest of the season. Now we need to continue making progress, starting from the next round in Mexico.”
Kimi Räikkönen began the day 11th on the road at the wheel of his Citroën C4 WRC. “We’ve made a progress during this event,” commented the former F1 World Champion. “It was important for our experience to finish this first rally of our WRC season. We lost a bit of time with the snowbanks but the main thing was to get through all the special stages. We always knew that Sweden was never going to be an easy rally for us to start the season with. But now we are able to prepare for the next event. I haven’t driven the Citroën C4 WRC on gravel yet, but I hope that we can be more consistent in Mexico.”
Benoit Nogier, the Citroën Junior Team manager, commented: “Kimi has made a remarkable start on his first World Championship event with us. We stuck completely to the plan that we had set out before hand. Kimi got progressively quicker, but also remained calm in the face of all the new things that he had to learn. As for Sébastien Ogier, he displayed all the qualities that he showed at the end of last year and we could not hope for better. He has ended up fifth on his very first Rally Sweden, having avoided making any mistakes. We cannot be anything but extremely satisfied with his performance. Throughout the whole rally, the cars did not display a single issue and that is always a very good sign of a great weekend! From start to finish, our cars and drivers have displayed a truly front-running performance.”
THE RALLY IN FIGURES
Fastest times
Day 1 – SS1: Dani Sordo (Citroën C4) – SS2 et 3: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4) – SS4 and 5: Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus) – SS6: Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus) – SS7: Hirvonen – SS8: Loeb.
Day 2 – SS9: Hirvonen – SS10 to 12: Loeb – SS13: Latvala – SS14: Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus) – SS15: Latvala – SS16: Martin Prokop (Ford Fiesta).
Day 3: SS17: Loeb – SS18 and 19: Hirvonen – SS20 and 2: Latvala.
Best performers: Loeb, 7 best times – Hirvonen, 6 – Latvala, 5 – Sordo, Grönholm and Prokop, 1.
Leaders: SS1: Sordo – SS2 and 3: Loeb – SS4 to 21: Hirvonen.
Final overall general classification (subject to the official publication of the results)
1. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus 3h09’30’’4
2. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 +42’’3
3. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +1’15’’4
4. Sordo / Marti Citroën C4 +2’41’’6
5. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 +4’15’’3
6. H. Solberg / Minor Ford Focus +5’23’’4
7. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +7’53’’9
8. Östberg / Andersson Subaru Impreza +9’22’’2
9. Solberg / Mills Citroën C4 +10’17’’5
10. Andersson / Fredriksson Skoda Fabia +12’08’’9
