CITROEN DS3 SCORES MAIDEN WIN
Citroen’s Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, who have been unbeaten in Mexico since 2006, yesterday racked up their fifth consecutive victory and in doing so, scored a maiden win for the new Citroën DS3 WRC.
Loeb and Elena are now in second place in the Drivers’ World Championship.
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, in the sister DS3 WRC, went off in the first stage on the final day and had to retire due to a broken left-hand front upright. Only 10.5s had separated Ogier and Loeb when they left the Poliforum de León service park, “I had to push to hold on to my first place as my position of being first out forced me to sweep the roads yet again,” explained the Citroën Total World Rally Team driver. “In a corner, the car understeered and I went a bit wide. I couldn’t avoid a stone on the verge and the left-hand front upright broke. I gambled and I lost, but above all I’m feeling gutted for the whole team. We’d done a great job since the start of the weekend and I didn’t manage to make it pay off by scoring precious points for Citroën.”
When Loeb saw his team-mate stopped in the stage he lifted off a little until the finish: “Seeing Sébastien and Julien on the side of the road didn’t give me much pleasure. We could have fought till the very end and it’s a pity it finished like that. We went back into the lead of the rally with more than 1m 30s in hand over Mikko. We just nursed it home.”
After losing a few seconds in Comanjilla, Loeb arrived at the start of the Power Stage with the firm intention of adding a few more points to his tally. By snatching the second-quickest time from Petter Solberg, the seven-time world champion bagged an additional two points rounding off a very exciting weekend: “We’ve just had a very tricky rally. I had a great scrap with Sébastien Ogier, a few teething troubles with the car, and my victory only came at the end of the race. It’s a good result where points are concerned, as we’re in second place in the world championship. The season’s really begun for us here.”
“It’s another exceptional result for Citroën,” smiled Olivier Quesnel. “It was a really great rally. We lost Sébastien Ogier along the way; it’s unfortunate but that’s how it goes. In the first event on gravel we showed the speed and reliability of the DS3 WRC, even if we had a few glitches. I’m feeling confident for the rest of the season as I’m convinced that we’ve got the best car and the best crews. We’ve now got to use our brains to fight for the two world titles.”
Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson drove a cautious third leg and brought their DS3 WRC home in fourth place as well as scoring a bonus point in the Power Stage.
(ends)
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Miles Williams
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EJR/ejr/996
3/8/2011