World champion Sébastien Loeb won every stage of the Tour de Corse to clinch his first WRC victory on home soil and bolster Citroën’s lead in the manufacturers’ title chase on Sunday.
World champion Sébastien Loeb won every stage of the Tour de Corse to clinch his first WRC victory on home soil and bolster Citroën’s lead in the manufacturers’ title chase on Sunday.
Loeb, who wrapped up his second consecutive championship in Japan, had never won on the island in spite of his blistering speed on asphalt rallies. In 2003, the Frenchman spun off on a twisty Corsican mountain road while in the lead, and last year persistent understeer spoiled his chances, although a second-place finish helped him to clinch his maiden WRC championship title.
“I really wanted to win here, not only because this is my home rally but also because I love the Corsican stages,” Loeb said at the finish. “At the beginning of the season the two objectives I set myself were to win in Finland and Corsica. Marcus (Gronholm) was the man to beat in Finland, but like him I am very pleased to have won my home round, with a little touch of panache!”
Citroën’s main objective for the weekend had been to seal the manufacturers’ championship title. The French team came into the event with a 150 to 128 points lead over Peugeot, but even with Loeb’s victory that was not to be. The Double Chevron’s lead is now a near-unassailable 30 points, but Peugeot still has at least a mathematical chance to make that up in the final two rounds.
Peugeot’s top driver, Gronholm, retired from the event on Friday with a gearbox failure, but Loeb’s team-mate, Francois Duval, lost time on Saturday with brake problems and rolled his car in an attempt to catch third-placed Petter Solberg’s Subaru.
And yet another DNF did not please Citroën team boss Guy Frequelin: “I am disappointed for Francois. He wasn’t feeling very well this morning, and I suggested that he didn’t try to catch Petter Solberg, and that he should even let (Subaru’s) Stephane Sarrazin pass if he got close. He was totally free to slow if he wished.”
Duval has two more chances to redeem himself in 2005, but, so far this season, the Belgian has scored only two podiums and 29 points, as compared to Loeb’s 117 points – nine wins, 12 podiums and only a single DNF – with the same equipment.
Meanwhile, Finn Toni Gardemeister was the toast of the Ford World Rally Team. Gardemeister matched his career-best second-place finish in an event where Finnish pilots have often struggled – Markku Alen is the only one to have won on the island in the event’s 50-year history, having won in a Lancia in 1981 and 1982.
“It means a lot to me to be second behind a driver who was fastest on every stage,” Gardemeister said. “It’s my best asphalt performance. I felt sure I could take a good result because I knew the Focus RS is a great car on asphalt and I quickly realised that if I didn’t make any mistakes, then everything would be fine.”
Gardemeister didn’t have any trouble keeping challengers behind him… He started the final day 25 seconds ahead of Solberg, and extended that to a full 50 seconds on the third leg, scoring three second-fastest times on the four stages.
Meanwhile, Solberg played things safe. With Duval out of the picture, the Norwegian drove his Subaru to a podium finish. He kept within a few seconds of Gardemeister’s pace on each of the first three stages, but then lost nearly 20 seconds to undisclosed mechanical problems on the final stage of the rally.
Solberg’s teammate, Sarrazin, claimed fourth, a further 52 seconds back, after a solid drive. “I’m happy with fourth place here, it’s a good result for me and the team too,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see how we fare in Catalunya because we have seen this weekend how much the car has improved on asphalt.”
Roman Kresta took fifth in the second Ford Focus, and Alexandre Bengue took sixth in a Skoda Fabia WRC, scoring the team’s best finish this year.