The Citroën World rally team has won seven consecutive times at Rally Argentina thanks to the efforts of Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena. The defending champions notched up a record 70 world rally wins for Loeb in the process.
The win was not an easy one for the eight-time champs, who lost valuable time by spinning twice, all on the first day but made the most of the misfortune of Ford’s Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson, who suffered a failure on their Fiesta WRC. The next day saw Loeb and Elena up against team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen, who were on a hard charge and catching up with the lead duo, but team orders put an end to the lead swopping, which bagged the Citroën outfit maximum points.
“It’s great to get back to winning ways after drawing a blank in Portugal. Everything went really well this weekend. Although the first few stages didn’t go quite how we’d have liked, we stayed calm and in the end we were able to take control of the race. I like Rally Argentina because I have had a lot of success here and because the itinerary is always superb. It is always immensely satisfying to win here,” said Loeb.
After what seemed like a sure third place overall, Dani Sordo (who replaced the injured Jari-Matti Latvala in the other works Ford Fiesta WRC) suffered an alternator failure after the start of the final stage – a disappointing end to the Spaniard’s weekend, who was on loan to Ford from the Prodrive-run Mini team.
With both works Fiestas out of contention for third, the final podium spot was scooped up by Mads Ostberg and Jonas Anderson from the Adapta World Rally Team, who’ve had a good season so far and are just two points shy of Hirvonen, who’s currently third in the driver’s championship.
Obviously I am happy to have another podium, but again this is not the way we wanted to get it. I am so sorry for Dani – he did a great job all weekend. I can’t really enjoy this podium as much as I would like to, but it shows you that a rally isn’t over until it’s over.
The next round of the WRC head back to Europe for the Acropolis Rally of Greece, which happens on the 25-27 May.
Driver’s Championship standings
1.Sebastien Loeb – 91 points
2.Petter Solberg – 73
3.Mikko Hirvonen – 70
4.Mads Ostberg – 68
5.Evgeny Novikov – 43
6.Jari-Matti Latvala – 28
7.Martin Prokop – 26
8.Nasser Al-Attiyah – 23
Manufacturer’s championship standings
1.Citroën Total World Rally Team – 151 points
2.Ford World Rally Team – 106
3.M-Sport Ford World Rally Team – 81
4.Qatar World Rally Team – 37
5.Citroën Junior World Rally Team – 30
6.Adapta World Rally Team – 27
7.Mini WRC Team – 26
8.Brazil World Rally Team – 10
