WRC : Loeb wins Rally de Espana

Sébastien Loeb-Daniel Elena (Citroën). Winners RallyRACC

COSTA DAURADA : October 5, 2008 - Sébastien Loeb added to his remarkable WRC driving record today, securing his fourth consecutive win on Rally de Espana and the 45th win of his WRC career.


The Citroën Total team leader didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend and threaded his C4 WRC through the final asphalt stage in Tarragona today to win by 24.9sec.

The result was Loeb’s ninth win from the 12 rallies contested so far in the 15-round 2008 World Rally Championship, and extends his lead in the drivers’ standings to 12 points over his nearest rival, Mikko Hirvonen. A maximum 18 points for Citroën moves them 27 points clear of Ford in the manufacturers’ battle.

Loeb has been unbeatable on a ‘pure’ asphalt round of the WRC since 2005, and even taking into account the mixed surface of Monte Carlo, this was his 11th consecutive asphalt rally win.

“I’m very, very happy!” said Loeb. “It’s been a very good rally for me - almost perfect - but it hasn’t been easy. I had to push hard to try to increase my lead over [Citroën team-mate] Dani Sordo on the first and second days. Okay, today I was able to slow the speed a little, but I had to work to build the time early on. To get the one-two result with Dani is a great achievement for the whole team, and helps a lot in the manufacturers’ championship.”

Spaniard Dani Sordo drove his C4 World Rally Car to second place, after a similarly trouble free rally. “It’s a really good result for the team and for me in the championship,” he said. “I’m very happy to do this here in front of my home crowd. Of course I hope to win a rally soon, maybe it will happen on the next one in Corsica.”

On the penultimate stage the BP Ford Abu Dhabi squad asked its asphalt specialist Francois Duval to drop back and allow Mikko Hirvonen to take third and a better points haul. At the stage end Hirvonen said he was grateful for Duval’s assistance. “It’s helped me get one extra point and I have to thank Francois for that - he was a real team player,” said Hirvonen. “Third was the best we could get here. At the end I think I found a good rhythm on tarmac but okay, Corsica will be different. The roads are more abrasive, there’s more grip and hopefully we can get challenge the Citroëns a bit more there.”

After holding third for most of the event, and being the closest challenger to the Citroëns, Duval remained happy with his performance in Spain. “It’s been good for me, and it’s looking good for Corsica,” he said. “I am more confident in the car, made no mistakes and got no punctures - so it’s okay. I’ll try for a win in Corsica.”

Following Urmo Aava’s retirement on the rally’s penultimate stage, Petter Solberg brought his Subaru World Rally Team Impreza WRC2008 home in fifth. “Its been a tough rally for us,” said Solberg. “The car worked better in Germany, and now we have to learn from this rally. I did something before the two last stages which made it feel a bit better. In places it’s okay.”

Jari-Matti Latvala was sixth in his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Focus, and delighted to have made up two places on the final day. “It’s a fantastic result - I’m really happy,” said the Finn. “But it didn’t look so good earlier. I’m sorry for Aava, because he had done a good job, but I’m happy to have got ahead of Chris [Atkinson]. I had three ‘black rallies’ before this one, so I’m feeling happy, relieved and looking forward Corsica.

Atkinson finished seventh in the second factory Subaru and felt he had done the best job he could. “Personally speaking it’s been a good event,” he said. “I swapped times back and forth with Petter, I’m satisfied with my driving and really that’s all I can do.”

Eighth, and collecting the final drivers’ championship point, was Norwegian youngster Andreas Mikkelsen in his privately entered Ford Focus RS WRC. “Our goal was to come here and take points and we made it!” he said. “To do this before Corsica is a huge confidence booster. It’s been a very good weekend for us.”

After losing more than 27 minutes on the rally’s penultimate stage, Urmo Aava eventually brought his battered Citroën C4 across the finish line of SS18 in 34th place and explained what had gone wrong: “I cut a corner too deeply and broke the lower suspension arm on the left-hand side,” he said. “We stopped and changed it but it looks like something else was broken - and we went off again on the last stage. It’s hard to be very positive about this rally. My aim was to drive to the finish and be fast. We are very sorry not to have done that, but we can only do our best.”

Result :

Pos	Driver	Car	Time
1.	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	2h 22’57”2
2.	Daniel Sordo	Citroën C4 WRC	+27”7
3.	Francois Duval	Ford Focus RS WRC 2008	+51”4
4.	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC 2008	+1’04”6
5.	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC2008	+3’06”9
6.	Urmo Aava	Citroën C4 WRC	+3’08”3
7.	Chris Atkinson	Subaru Impreza WRC2008	+3’42”7
8.	Jari-Matti Latvala	Ford Focus RS WRC 2007	+3’46”1
9.	Andreas Mikkelsen	Ford Focus RS WRC 2007	+4’17”2
10.	Matthew Wilson	Ford Focus RS WRC 2007	+6’25”8

WRC Drivers Championship Standings :

1	Sébastien Loeb (Citroën)	96pts
2	Mikko Hirvonen (Ford)	84pts
3	Dani Sordo (Citroën)	59pts
4	Chris Atkinson (Subaru)	42pts
5	Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford)	34pts
6	Petter Solberg (Subaru)	36pts

Manufacturers' championship standings :

1	Citroën Total World Rally Team	159pts
2	BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team	132pts
3	Subaru World Rally Team	80pts
4	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	55pts
5	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team	22pts
6	Suzuki World Rally Team	20pts

[Source : WRC , Image courtesy of RallyRACC]