inforally.eu

t the end of the first day of the 2008 Rally Mexico, Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena are currently second overall with their Citroën C4 WRC, 9.6 seconds behind the provisional leader. Their team-mates Dani Sordo/Marc Martí were unfortunately sidelined this morning after a wishbone broke when they hit a rock on SS1 (Alfaro), but they will line up for Saturday’s re-start under the SupeRally ruling.
The first gravel outing of the year got off to a colourful ceremonial start last night in the magical town of Guanajuato, a Unesco world heritage site. The occasion gave the Citroën crews a chance to see just how popular they have become in Mexico. The itinerary of the first day of competitive action (135.74km) took competitors into the bare hills that surround host town León and Guanajuato, with a loop of three stages to be contested twice each before two attempts at the evening’s super-special in León.

The day got off to a complex start for Citroën Sport as news broke that the C4 WRC of Dani Sordo and Marc Martí was parked up just kilometres after the start of SS1. “I don’t know what happened,” reported Dani back at service in the Poliforum exhibition centre. “I was keeping to the line made by previous competitors through a left-hand corner, but there must have been a rock because the wishbone broke. It’s bitterly disappointing. Up to that point, we had found a good pace and our split times were looking good.” The Spaniards will rejoin the competition tomorrow morning under the SupeRally ruling.

Last year, Citroën launched the C2 Junior Experience within the framework of the FIA Junior Rally Championship. After a very positive first season, Citroën will repeat the scheme in 2008 but this time with three eligible cars: the C2 Super 1600, the C2-R2 and the new C2-R2 MAX. It is a popular move: five out of the nine cars that have entered the opening round of this year’s Junior series in Mexico are Citroëns.
« When we started the C2 Junior Experience in 2007, a large number of the Junior Championship competitors were already Citroën drivers, » comments Jean-François Liénéré, who is in charge of Citroën Sport’s customer operation. « Now, with more than half the Junior field in a Citroën at the start of Rally Mexico, we’re once again pleased to note that we are clearly responding to our customers’ demands. »

As was the case last year, the Juniors have to nominate six rallies on which to score points. They have the choice of four gravel rounds and three asphalt events, now that the option of a snow rally has been taken off the calendar. Unusually the drivers will spend a lot of time outside Europe this year, as after Mexico the Junior calendar takes in the Jordan Rally as round two.

The third round of the 2008 World Rally Championship takes the series to Mexico where the stages twist through the hills near León, in the state of Guanajuato, which is situated at an altitude of 1,800 metres. Citroën Total has entered two C4 WRCs for Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Martí, while the C4 WRC entered by Conrad Rautenbach/David Senior will be run by PH Sport with support from Citroën Sport Technologies technicians.
The WRC regulars look forward to the Mexican fixture and one of the reasons for that is the fact that it is the first outing of the year on gravel, the season’s most frequently encountered surface type (10 rallies from 15). “Mexico tends to be dry and hot, and it is also the year’s first dirt rally,” confirms Citroën Sport’s Technical Manager, Xavier Mestelan-Pinon. “Once the first three events are behind us, we will have a clearer picture of this season’s key players and of the areas in which we will need to improve in our bid to win the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles.”

The route is practically identical to that of 2007, with 354km of against-the-clock action. “The fact that the stages are repeated from one year to the next is something we need to take into account,” continues Xavier Mestelan-Pinon. “The conditions could be rougher this time round and the high altitudes we visit – up to 2,700 metres – will again play a key role. Because of the lower atmospheric pressure, the engines deliver less power and their cooling systems work less efficiently. That said, this is known territory for us now and we took these parameters into account during our test programme for this rally.”

The first leg of the 2007 Rally Catalunya ended this evening in Salou with Citroën C4 WRCs holding first and second places. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena top the provisional leaderboard, while Dani Sordo and Marc Martí follow in second spot in their identical machine, just behind their team-mates.

With six stages totalling 148km on the menu, the opening day of the 2007 World Rally
Championship’s twelfth round was the longest of the weekend. The first two tests, to the northeast of the Port Aventura service park, were covered twice each, while the day concluded with two other tests, this time to the northwest. Also, with the Spanish round reverting to its autumn slot, the bad weather that moved in over the region came as no surprise.

In addition to making the stages extremely treacherous, the downpour that fell over the Costa Daurada on Thursday evening led the organisers to cancel the ceremonial start. The sun was shining, however, as the competitors left the service park early this morning, but the conditions caused Citroën Sport to think long and hard about their tyre choice. With so much water still lingering, both C4 WRCs finally went out on soft compound BFGoodrich tyres. The little amount of grip available prompted the team’s two crews to start off cautiously, but they then upped their pace on SS2 to ease into first and second places, with Sébastien ahead of Dani.

The tyre call for the second loop of stages proved complex again. Believing the conditions to be drier, Dani and Marc switched to a harder compound than their team-mates. Both Citroën C4 WRC drivers profited from the loop, however, to pull further clear of their rivals, while Seb and Dani traded positions at the top of the leaderboard.

The forecast of showers for the end of the afternoon by Météo France Sports, one of Citroën Sport’s technical partners, added a further complication to the French team’s deliberations as they considered which tyres to fit for the final loop of what turned out to be a very difficult day. The drivers take up the story in their own words…

“Our choice wasn’t ideal for the rain on SS6,” explained Sébastien Loeb. “We managed to live with it, though, and even succeeded in pulling out a useful gap over Marcus Grönholm. It’s been a dramatic opening day but the car and the team ensured we came through it unscathed. It’s looking very encouraging at the moment, but there’s still a long way to go.”

“It was a positive day for us, too,” echoed Dani Sordo. “The last stage was really very difficult but I’m pleased to say that we succeeded in pulling even further clear of Marcus. Although it’s not the most important thing this weekend, it was nice to lead a World Championship rally for the first time in my career… and on home soil, too. That was something special but, as I say, the main thing is to be ahead of Grönholm on Sunday afternoon.”

After the day’s stressful moments, a sense of relief could be read on Guy Fréquelin’s face: “It’s been a taxing day but it’s behind us now. Everyone in the Citroën team did a remarkable job to keep clear of all the potential pitfalls and to enable us to figure in first and second places this evening. Both crews put in superb runs and showed how competitive the C4 is. They are currently ahead of Marcus Grönholm which is a good thing in terms of the fight for the championship. I still prefer to be cautious, though, because we’re not even halfway into the event yet.”

The ceremonial start scheduled for Thursday night in Salou was cancelled, so the 43rd Rally RACC Catalunya only got underway this morning for the Junior drivers. After the rain that fell last night and also at the end of the opening leg, most of the big questions centred around tyre choice.

Today’s action for the Juniors consisted of three loops of two stages each, making up a total of 148.05 competitive kilometres. Martin Prokop in the Citroen C2 Super 1600 held his own. The Czech driver, who won this rally last year, was third at the end of leg one – having driven carefully in the morning to avoid making mistakes. Conrad Rautenbach started the day with a bad tyre choice, and then never found a good enough feeling to join in the leading Junior group. He returns to service this evening in sixth place. Just behind him, young Spaniard Yeray Lemes (aged 20) drove an excellent opening day of his first World Championship rally.

On the second stage of the day he lost some time after breaking his gear lever, but he made the time up as the leg progressed – setting a third quickest time on the penultimate stage. He is currenty seventh, 7.6 seconds behind Rautenbach. Aaron Burkart in the final C2 Super 1600 was unlucky on SS3, when he went off the road after getting caught out by some loose gravel. The German found himself below the level of the road, and he took seven minutes to extricate himself. Nonetheless he remains cheerful and optimistic, ending leg one in 15th.

Yoann Bonato dominates the C2-R2 category, just as he did in Finland and Germany. His Citroen is just behind the Super 1600s, in 10th place . Stefano Benoni and Gilles Schammel enjoyed a hectic battle for second place in the category. The Italian got the better of his rival, ending up in 12th overall. Schammel found it hard to find the right rhythm in the opening pair of stages and the closing stage. He broke his clutch cable, which led to a loss of two minutes and resulted in 14th place overnight. Shaun Gallagher finished between them, having driven a cautious opening leg. The newcomer Vilius Rozukas brought up the rear of the category after a puncture in SS4, finishing in 16th place. Finally, the Belgian Raphael Auquier went off the road on the first stage and will not start tomorrow under the SupeRally rules, in order to prepare his C2-R2 for next weekend’s Rallye de France – Tour de Corse.

The OMV Kronos Citroen WRT has mixed feelings when looking back on the first day of the „Rallye RACC Catalunya“, the eleventh run to the FIA World Rally Championship. Following the early retirement of Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor on special stage three the hopes lay on Francois Duval (Bel) and co Patrick Pivato (Fra). And the Belgian OMV driver in the Citroen Xsara WRC impressed with best-time on SS 3 and third place on the fourth special stage. Following day one in Spain he currently lies in good fifth overall place.

At the beginning of the first day of the Rally of Spain OMV Kronos Citroen WRT-driver Francois Duval was still a bit cautious until he finally put his foot really down on the third special stage and proved that he belongs to the top drivers on tarmac. Result: best-time ahead of World Champion Sebastien Loeb (Fra/Citroen C4 WRC). And on the next stage third place meant another top result for the OMV driver in the Citroen Xsara WRC.

Hard and slippery
Following this conditions didn’t suit him as much anymore but he nevertheless securely stayed within scoring ranks. Duval: „It was a little bit too hard and slippery for my taste. The car was moving around a bit much.“ Thus the Belgian OMV driver and his French co Patrick Pivato finished the first day of the Rally of Spain in good fifth overall place – although only 9,6 seconds ahead of Petter Solberg (Nor/Subaru Impreza WRC), which promises a hot infight for Saturday.

The OMV Team Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor had to retire early at the “Rallye RACC Catalunya”, the eleventh run to the FIA World Rally Championship. Four kilometres into the third special stage the Citroen Xsara WRC started to slip on the loose gravel – followed by a rollover five metres down an embankment which spelt retirement for this WRC-run. Fortunately, driver and co-driver remained unhurt. The second crew of the OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team proved to be luckier. Following best-time on SS 3, Belgian Francois Duval currently lies in fifth place and is on the hunt to catch up with Mikko Hirvonen (Fin/Ford Focus WRC) in front of him.

Following the first two special stages and about 50 kilometres OMV driver Manfred Stohl had been very satisfied. He had a good feeling concerning the Citroen Xsara WRC and was within scoring range in eighth overall place. But then fate hit and early retirement was the result.
“We started to slip towards the embankment in a left turn – and unfortunately the embankment was five metres steep. Currently luck really isn’t my lady. I am especially sorry because the Kronos Team really did a great job “, said Stohl.
Other teams were equally unfortunate at this very spot on SS 3. Six cars overall dropped out in this turn.
Due to the damage done to the car a restart within SupeRally won’t be possible for the OMV Team Stohl/Minor.

Fourth place in sight
The second crew of the OMV Kronos Citroen World Rally Team proves to be luckier so far. Francois Duval/Patrik Pivot (Bel/Fra) already made up six places and currently lie in promising fifth intermediate place following their best-time on special stage three. The hunt for Finn Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus WRC) in front of them is on.