Citroen Goes Back To The Future!

Citroen Goes Back To The Future!

The Rally of Italy came to an end at the weekend (22-24 May 2009) with a Citroen on the podium but it was not driven by World Champion Sébastien Loeb, whose world record matching run of wins came to an end in Sardinia, nor was it even a Citroen C4 WRC, but in a case of back to the future it was a 2004 Citroen Xsara WRC driven by Petter Solberg.

At least Loeb finished in the points, taking fourth place after he was demoted off the podium by the event stewards, which is still better than his team mate Dani Sordo who completed the event in a distant 23nd place.

The first signs that this was not going to be Citroen’s weekend came when Dani Sordo had engine problems before the first stage on the first day and collected a 30 second penalty for being late at the stage start. The rival Ford team thought that they smelt team tactics, trying to force the Fords to sweep the stage, but Citroen was adamant that that they weren’t playing games with rules. Sordo’s day got worse when he collected a rock, damaging the suspension, dropping another 30 seconds and he collected yet another 30 second penalty when Citroen mechanics took more than the allotted time repairing his car.

Meanwhile, Loeb was first on the road and dropping times to the two Ford drivers as he swept the road to produce a faster line for the following cars. When Citroen decided that it would play games with the rules, it was much more obvious – Loeb stopped on the final stage for an agonising 20 seconds in a bid to ensure that the Ford crews didn’t slow down and make him the road sweeper for the final day. The news of Loeb’s mid-stage rest stop came too late for Hirvonen, he was already between the yellow and red stage end boards, where it’s illegal to stop, and he crawled to the finish line but was still three seconds quicker than Loeb. Latavla, meanwhile, was already on the final stage and received a radio message to “go for it” so he would be the road sweeper on day two, not Hirvonen who is higher in the driver’s championship race.

Loeb started day two with a 40 second shortfall to make up on day two – a challenge that seem quite surmountable until stage eleven when a puncture stopped the flying Frenchman, costing him a minute which dropped him back to fourth place.

If was a bad day for Loeb, it was, once again, even worse for Sordo, with turbo problems pushing back by four minutes and down to eighth place.

But at the front of the event, Latvala, far from being slowed by being road sweeper, held his team mate at bay and maintained first place. So much for the Ford tactics.

The third and final leg on the Mediterranean island featured a competitive programme of five stages totalling 80km, and was consequently no stroll for the surviving crews. Loeb began the day with a significant gap separating him from the lead, and his aim was to secure a good finish and pocket valuable points.

After the morning's opening test, the reigning champion spoke of a distinct lack of visibility as a result of hanging dust: "The dust didn't have time to settle; it just hung in the air because of the morning's humidity. I couldn't see a thing. It was very dangerous and there were several places where I was practically at a standstill."

After dropping a further handful of seconds on 'Sorilis', the Frenchman reached the service park in Olbia in fourth place, but still upbeat about his chances of a podium finish.

Following his turbo troubles of Saturday afternoon, Dani Sordo's objective was to ensure he pocketed Manufacturers' points for Citroën, but in the end he was again slowed by a similar problem: "We dropped another 20 minutes or so. I had to keep stopping to let the other cars pass, and that meant I was then in their dust. We're still in the running, though, and that's the main thing. We need to make it to the finish."

After the service halt, the crews still had the Arzachena stage to come, plus a repeat visit to the morning's first two tests. This time, Loeb benefited from a clear run and went on to round off the weekend with a fastest time on the final stage, over taking Solberg’s Xsara and completing the rally in third place.

But then the previous day’s puncture came back to haunt Loeb when he was handed a penalty, dropping him back to fourth place, thanks to a rule-breaking error by his co-driver Daniel Elena.

“The stewards judged that Daniel had taken off his harness belt too soon when the crew stopped to change a wheel on SS11," explained team director Olivier Quesnel. "That said, they took into account the fact that it wasn't dangerous because they were driving slowly at the time. We accept the decision.”

Loeb's thoughts are now already tuned to the future: "I am obviously disappointed that our winning streak has come to an end, but it had to happen one day. At least people will stop talking about a possible grand slam this season, which is something I have never given a thought to myself!”

“Our problems this weekend prove that nothing can be taken for granted in this championship which is turning out to be as challenging as ever. We need to keep on working to try to turn the tables on our rivals in Greece."

With the number of spare turbos available for Sardinia and Greece restricted, the technical team decided to switch the engine of Dani and Marc's C4 to normally-aspirated mode, but Sordo had the pleasure of reaching the finish:

"Our engine was cruelly down on power, but we still managed to have fun down the downhill bits! It was important to reach the finish. We succeeded, and that means two extra points for Citroën in the Manufacturers' World Championship."

ENDS

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