Citroën Reigns In Spain!
8/10/2008
Citroën has totally dominated the Spanish round of the 2008 World Rally Championship, with Sebastien Loeb leading home a Citroën 1-2 victory at the weekend (3-5 October 2008) thanks to the total supremacy of the event by the Citroën C4 WRC.
Loeb took the lead on stage one on Friday - the first of six stage wins on day one - and, followed by his team mate Dani Sordo, left all the other competitors in their wake. On the second and third days the Citroën team consolidated its domination of the event, with Loeb taking the line on 11 of the event's 18 stages.
"It won't surprise anyone to learn that I am delighted with this win," Loeb beamed after adding a fourth consecutive Spanish victory to his career account and which takes his personal total to nine WRC wins in 2008 and 45 in total. "Our C4 WRC performed impeccably from start to finish, and that has taken us a step closer to both world titles, although there's still a long way to go!"
The win in Spain is Loeb's four consecutive win this season, the team's third 1-2 finish in 2008 and, with nine out of 12 podiums this season topped by Loeb, the Frenchman leads the driver's championship by 96 points to 84 points, and Citroën leads the manufacturers' title chase by 159 to 132 points.
"This is our third consecutive one-two of 2008, which is immensely satisfying," smiled Citroën Team manager, Olivier Quesnel at the finish. "What I particularly appreciate about this result is the way it was obtained. Our two Citroën C4s were never dislodged from the top of the leaderboard and were remarkably reliable throughout, while the mechanics did an impeccable job tending to them over the three days. Sebastien and Daniel put in a perfect run, pulling clear initially and then controlling from in front. It was a polished performance, too, from Dani and Marc who superbly defended second spot. They were in complete control in relation to their rivals in third place. This is also a very positive outcome for Citroën in both championships, and exactly the sort of weekend I would love to see repeated in a week's time when we move on to Corsica."
Yet again, Dani and Marc joined their team-mates on the podium in second place and were visibly equally thrilled with the result.
"This is our third consecutive silver medal on our home round and the third time we have contributed to a one-two finish here for Citroën. I would obviously love to win this event one day, but I am happy with today's outcome," said Dani. "It was a superb weekend for us, and there was much less corner-cutting this time round compared with previous years. We profited from Friday's run to make some set-up changes to adapt the car to our tyres and I then fell into a quick but safe rhythm which enabled us to defend second spot. Our C4 was awesomely competitive all the way to the finish and monopolising the top two positions today is a great reward for everyone in the team. It has enabled Citroën to close in on the title and we will do all we can to reproduce the same result in Ajaccio next weekend!"
Rally facts
Stage wins
Day 1: SS1, SS2, SS3, SS4, SS5, SS6: Sebastien Loeb (Citroën C4).
Day2: SS7, SS8 and SS9: S. Loeb - SS10: Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus) - SS11: S. Loeb - SS12: Francois Duval (Ford Focus).
Day3: SS13: F. Duval - SS14: S. Loeb - SS15: Dani Sordo (Citroën C4) - SS16, SS17 and SS18: M. Hirvonen.
Best performers:
Leaders:
SS1 to SS18: S. Loeb.
Final leaderboard on 44th RallyRACC Catalunya-Costa Daurada (12/15)
1. S. Loeb/D. Elena (Citroën C4) 3 h 21 min 17,4 s
2. D. Sordo/M. Marti (Citroën C4) + 24,9 s
3. M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen (Ford Focus) + 1 min 02,5 s
4. F. Duval/P. Pivato (Ford Focus) + 1 min 10,8 s
5. P. Solberg/P. Mills (Subaru Impreza) + 3 min 27,4 s
6. JM Latvala/M. Anttila (Ford Focus) + 4 min 03,8 s
7. C. Atkinson/S. Prevot (Subaru Impreza) + 4 min 04,9 s
8. A. Mikkelsen/O. Floene (Ford Focus) + 5 min 19,6 s
9. M. Wilson/S. Martin (Ford Focus) + 7 min 43,2 s
10. B. Tirabassi/F. Gordon (Subaru Impreza) + 9 min 05 s
FIA World rally Championship's rankings 'Manufacturers' (round 12/15)*
1. Citroën-Total, 159 points - 2. Ford, 132 pts - 3. Subaru, 80 pts - 4. Stobart, 55 pts - 5. Munchi's, 22 pts - 6. Suzuki, 20 pts.
FIA World rally Championship's rankings 'Drivers' (round 12/15)*
1. S. Loeb, 96 pts - 2. M. Hirvonen, 84 points - 3. D. Sordo, 59 pts - 4. C. Atkinson, 42 pts - 5. JM.
Latvala, 37 pts - 6. P. Solberg, 36 pts - 7. H. Solberg, 22 pts - 8. G. Galli, 17 pts - 9. F. Duval, 16 - 10. M.
Wilson, 12 pts - 11. U. Aava, 11 pts - 12. F. Villagra, 9 pts - 13. C. Rautenbach, 6 pts - 14. T.
Gardemeister, 5 pts - 15. A. Mikkelsen, 5 pts - 16. PG. Andersson, 4 pts - 17. JM. Cuoq, 2 pts - 18. M.
Rantanen, 2 pts - 19. A. Aigner, 1 pt - 20. J. Haenninen, 1 pt - 21. S. Ogier, 1 pt .
*Subject to final publications of the results by the FIA. Results are subject to routine fuel analysis.
