The Citroën World Rally team celebrated its seventh constructors’ title this weekend as Sebastien Loeb sealed the manufacturer’s championship for the French outfit at Rally de Catalunya in Spain with a dominant victory. The Frenchman now looks to seal his eighth world title as the season heads to Wales.
Loeb would have had the drivers’ championship wrapped had it not been for the previous two events – which saw him and co-driver Daniel Elena finish way off podium. But the duo didn’t put a foot wrong in Spain and were in control of the rally with a comfortable gap over the rest of the field quite early on during the event.
Despite running in second for almost the entirety of the event, Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala spun out and lost valuable time while chasing Loeb. After a valiant attempt to catch the leading Citroën, winning four stages over the rest of the weekend, he incurred a calculated two-minute penalty to allow team-mate and Loeb’s championship rival Mikko Hirvonen second place, while still finishing third.
“It was a tough rally and initially I struggled for pace on the asphalt,” said Hirvonen. “However, I made some changes to the way I drove, my times improved and my confidence increased. It took me a long time to realise what I needed to do, but I finished with a good feeling and thanks to Jari-Matti’s great support, it means the championship is still wide open going to the final round.
“For the moment we’re celebrating Citroën’s seventh title,” said Loeb . “But the drivers’ crown is far from over. Mikko Hirvonen has done a good job by finishing second here and we know he’ll be competitive on the stages in Wales. We must finish in front of him. The best thing we could do would be to win. So our destiny is in our own hands!”
The new Mini Countryman also put on a promising performance at the event, with Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
“It is okay to be fourth, but we lost a lot on the first day on the gravel stages and with the dust,” said Sordo. “We had hoped the rain would have come a little bit earlier today. For the first two stages we had the wrong tyres and the others had the right ones, then in the final stage we had the right ones. It was fun and a little bit slippery in some places. I am quite okay, but not totally happy as I really wanted to finish on the podium on my home rally, but it didn’t happen this time.”
“Today, we’re very proud of our championship title, the fourth in succession for Citroën,” said Olivier Quesnel, Citroën Racing Team Principal. “It’s the result of consistent work by a calm and humble team. We’ve stuck together through the hard times. We’ve won 10 out of the 12 rallies held so far, which is a pretty good score. Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia should also be associated with this result, as they had a great season despite their retirement this weekend. We’re going to analyse Ogier’s car in the workshops to find out exactly what the problem was, but we already know that it isn’t linked to Loeb’s retirement in France. We had two objectives this season: the drivers’ title and manufacturers’ crown. Today, we fulfilled one of them!”
The season finale, the Rally of Great Britain, happens in Wales from 10 to 13 November. The only driver who stands in the way of Loeb’s eighth title is Hirvonen, who’s eight points behind the Frenchman – and has yet to claim a drivers’ title. The stage is set and the rivals are ready to battle in Britain.