Citroen S Loeb Claims His Third World Title from Bed!

CITROEN’S LOEB CLAIMS HIS THIRD WORLD TITLE – FROM BED!

Citroen’s Sébastien Loeb has claimed his third World Rally Championship Drivers’ title (*) from the comfort of his bed at home in Switzerland, after his only challenger for the 2006 title, Marcus Gronholm, failed to finish high enough in the Rally Australia results at the weekend (27-29 October 2006) to stop the talented Frenchman from taking an unassailable lead in the 2006 title race.

Following a mountain bike accident that left Loeb with a broken arm, Rally Australia was the second event he has missed. But despite the challenge to Loeb’s title lead, he did not stay up to watch the event from his home.

“I had followed the Rally of Turkey from the start and the performance of Marcus Grönholm there had put me down a bit to begin with,” explained Loeb. “To see him flying like that and being at home without having a chance to do anything about it was tough. It wasn’t a great feeling. I didn’t want to repeat that!

This meant that Loeb missed the news that Gronholm rolled his Ford Focus on the notorious Australian marble surface on day one and plunged down the leader board to 18th place.

“The information text messages and the stage by stage classification messages had piled up into my phone and I saw them all at the same time,” says Loeb. “By the time I read all of them, the only thing I could remember was that Marcus now had a ten minute gap to the leader. Of course, it put me in a good mood!”

But Gronholm’s bad fortune could always have turned around to his benefit, as he fought back up the leader board, he could be aided by the unique Australian conditions causing other drivers ahead of him to come to grief.

“The start of the event showed that anything could happen,” says Loeb. “But the most difficult stages were behind us. I hoped that the ‘survivors’ would continue their careful progress. Ten minutes was a big gap for Marcus to catch up and finish on the podium as he needed to. After the final stage finish, I sent Marcus a friendly text message to thank him for the competition. He answered that it was fair and that I deserved this title. He also warned me about next year!”

Back in Australia, Loeb team partner Xavier Pons was battling for a podium finish and keep Gronholm behind them and off the podium, a position he needed maintain his title hopes.

“Today was quite close to being stressful,” admitted Pons. “I was paying a lot of attention to avoiding all the stones. Many drivers made mistakes on this rally and I did not want to become one of them!”

Dani Sordo/Marc Marti were forced to stop on Friday and restarted on Saturday morning under the superally regulations. On unfamiliar territory, the reigning Junior World Champion’s times demonstrated once more his uncanny ability to quickly adapt himself to new circumstances. With too great a time penalty to overcome, Dani was not able to fight with Seb’s Finnish rival – unlike his team mate.

But having battled at the very front in Catalunya and Germany, Dani too has given his team leader a hand to win the title.

“Obviously Ihoped for abetter result,” admitted the Spaniard afterwards. “Butthisdelicatebalancingact,onasurfacewithnogripatall, hasallowedmetolearnalot–whichwasthewholepointofthisyear.And someofthetime,mystagetimesandthegapstothestagewinners were encouraging.”

Missionaccomplished,thankstoexcellentteam work, was the conclusion of Marc Van Dalen, team director of Kronos Total Citroen.

“One year ago, Citroen Sport entrusted us with the responsibility of giving Seb and Daniel the best possiblechanceofdefendingtheirworldtitles.Thechallengewasfarfrom easy:wehadtobackupSebandDanielwiththebestrallyteaminthe world.EveryoneatKronosRacingshouldfeelproud.Thankstotheirhard work and commitment, with perfect support from Citroen Sport, our objectiveshavebeenmet.This emotionalmoment isonetosavour.The miraclesoftheinternetandmoderntechnologyhaveallowedustoshareit withSebandDaniel,whowereonalivelinktous.Nowwecannotwaitto havethemback,sothatwecancelebratethisthirdworldtitletogether!”

And what of Loeb, how is his return to health going?

“It’s true that it will be much easier to regain my health without the obsession of coming back quickly to fight for the title,” says Loeb. “But it doesn’t mean that I will go easier on myself as regards my rehabilitation. I have a lot of work to do. The X-rays we’ve just had have proved that the calcification is going well. I will have some checks in two week’s time. I realise that a lot of time is needed. A fracture at this level is rather complicated. On top of the bone knitting, I need to work on my range of movement and the strength of my arm. Some days, I have the feeling that nothing happens but I’ve understood that progress comes step by step.”

So, when will he be back behind the wheel?

“Now I can drive my road car on normal roads,” says Loeb. “But as far as getting back behind the wheel of a WRC car goes, I am unable to give you a date yet, and neither are the people looking after me. The minimum I can hope for is to take part in the New Zealand rally recce, as the route has changed a lot. So even if I don’t compete on the event this year, I won’t have to discover it completely next year. For the rest I need to be patient. It gives me some time to savour my third title!”

*Subjecttoofficial validationfromtheFIA.

Rally facts

Stage wins
Leg 1. SS1 and 2 : Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus) – SS3, 4, 5 : Chris Atkinson (Subaru Impreza) – SS6 and 7 : Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza) – SS8, 9 and 10 : M. Grönholm – SS11 : Xevi Pons (Citroën Xsara).
Leg 2. SS12 and 13 : Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus) – SS14 and 15 : M. Grönholm – SS16 : M.Hirvonen – SS17 : P. Solberg – SS18 and 19 : M. Grönholm – SS20: M. Hirvonen and M. Grönholm
Leg 3. SS21 : P. Solberg – SS22 and 23 : M. Hirvonen – SS24 and 25 : P. Solberg – SS26 : M.Hirvonen.

Best performers M. Grönholm, 10 fastest times (incl. 1 eq) – M. Hirvonen, 7 (incl. 1 eq) P. Solberg, 6 Ch. Atkinson, 3 X. Pons, 1.

Leaders SS1 and 2 : M. Grönholm – SS3 to 5 : Ch. Atkinson – SS6 : M. Hirvonen – SS7 and 8 : P.Solberg – SS9 to 26 : M. Hirvonen.

Final leaderboard Telstra Rally Australia 2006 *

1. M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen (Ford Focus) 3 h 15 min 11,8 s

2. P. Solberg/Ph. Mills (Subaru Impreza) + 37,1 s

3. M. Stohl/I. Minor (Peugeot 307) + 3 min 58,6 s

4. X. Pons/C. Del Barrio (Citroën Xsara) + 4 min 45,4 s

5. M. Grönholm/T. Rautiainen (Ford Focus) + 12 min 23,8 s

FIA World Rally Championship standings for Manufacturers after round 14 *

1. BP Ford WRT, 167 pts 2. Kronos Total Citroën WRT, 151 pts 3. Subaru WRT, 94 pts – 4. OMV Peugeot Norway, 73 pts – 5. Stobart VK/MSport Ford RT, 37 pts – 6. Red BullŠkoda, 23 pts.

FIA World Rally Championship standings for Drivers after round 14 *

1. S. Loeb (F), 112 pts (Champion du Monde 2006)** 2. M. Grönholm (FIN), 91 pts – 3. M. Hirvonen (FIN), 57 pts 4. D. Sordo (E), 43 pts – 5. M. Stohl (A), 40 pts 6. P. Solberg (N), 31 pts – 7. H. Solberg (N), 25 pts 8. X. Pons (E), 23 pts – 9. T. Gardemeister (FIN), 20 pts – 10. Ch. Atkinson (AUS), 17 pts 11. G. Galli (I), 15 pts 12. A. Bengué (F), 9 pts 13. K. Katajamäki (FIN), 7 pts – 14. J. Kopecký (CZ), 7 pts – 15. D. Carlsson (S), 6 pts …/…

(ends)

For further information:

Citroën Australia Media Web Site:

Miles Williams

Edward Rowe

Web site:

CitroënAustralia

Street Address: Heritage Building, Campus Business Park, 350 Parramatta Road, Homebush NSW 2140 Australia. Postal Address: Ateco Automotive Pty Ltd,Locked Bag 260, Silverwater, NSW 1811, Australia

Telephone: 02 9701 8000; Direct Telephone 02 9701 8015 Fax: 02 9701 3555. Mobile +61 0407 913 244

A.B.N. 34 000 486 706

EJR/ejr/700

10/30/2006