World Record Falls As Citroën Wins In Germany

Another World Record Falls To Loeb As Citroën Wins In Germany

Already the most successful rally driver of all time, Sébastien Loeb picked up another world record at the weekend (17-19 August 2007) when he won the German round of the World Rally Championship for the sixth time in his Citroën C4 WRC, setting a new benchmark for the most consecutive wins of one event and taking his WRC total to 33 wins.

Having won the WRC Rally of Germany every time it has been held, Loeb entered the 2007 event as the odds on favourite, but at the end of the first day, while there was a French-speaking driver in a Citroën at the head of the leader board, it was neither Loeb nor a Citroën C4. Proving that Loeb’s previous warhorse, the Xsara WRC, still has plenty of go, François Duval, took the lead on the last stage of the first day.

Although Loeb resecured the lead on day two, Duval and the trusty Xsara continued to play a vital role for the Citroën team, after Loeb’s team mate Dani Sordo left the event with an engine failure. With the Fords of Hironven and championship-leader Marcus Grönholm snapping at Loeb’s heels around the roads and tank training grounds amongst the German vineyards, Duval piled on the pressure – including being the fastest on every stage on the last day – until the Grönholm made an uncharacteristic mistake, letting Duval grab second place and dropping Grönholm down to fourth place in the final listing for the event.

"With a lead of 37.8s over Marcus Grönholm this morning, we had no reason to take any risks today," commented Sébastien after the finish ceremony. "We made sure we kept an eye on the other drivers' times and adopted our pace accordingly. With François Duval hard on his heels, Marcus couldn't afford to lift and we had to make sure he didn't get too close to us. This sort of situation is never easy because you always run the risk of getting into a false rhythm. At the same time, it means you are leading, which is obviously nice! I tried to drive sufficiently quickly to stay concentrated and avoid making any mistakes."

"Before the start," he continued, "we knew we had to start pulling back points if we wanted to stay in the title chase. I have always felt comfortable in Germany, so this was the ideal place to do that. At the same time, I didn’t want to disappoint all my supporters who come here to see us every year. We were consequently under quite a lot of pressure but we were able to cope with it thanks to the help of everyone at Citroën Sport."

Sébastien's 33rd world class win has a special taste for the Frenchman: "It's always nice to win this event. It is based close to my home region of Alsace and it's the event that gave me my first WRC win in 2002, so it is something very special. I am delighted to have won again. Apart from our poor tyre choice for Friday afternoon's stages, everything went well and, as ever, my Citroën was remarkably competitive. We have closed the gap to our main rival in the championship by five points and everything is still wide open, although the fight ahead promises to be very fierce."

Team director Guy Frequelin pointed out at the finish that Citroën’s winning streak in Germany actually predates the event joining the world series.

"This is the sixth win from six starts here in Trier for Sébastien and Daniel, a new record, and all six times they have won with Citroën. On top of that, Philippe Bugalski/Jean-Paul Chiaroni won the Rallye Deutschland in 2001 before it became a World Championship qualifying round. We were never really threatened by our main rival, the C4 showed its potential on asphalt and Seb succeeded in closing the gap to Grönholm, so it's been a very satisfying weekend. On top of that, the final day saw François Duval put his OMV-Kronos Citroën Xsara between Sébastien and Marcus which allowed Seb to close the gap by even more points. There are still six rounds to come but we can't afford to waste any opportunities to bridge the gap in either championship."

Rally statistics

Stage wins Leg 1 : SS1, SS2 : Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4) – SS3 : François Duval (Citroën Xsara) – SS4 : Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus) – SS5 : F. Duval – SS6 : Chris Atkinson (Subaru Impreza). Leg 2 : SS7 : M. Hirvonen (Ford Focus) – SS8 : S. Loeb – SS9 : Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus) – SS10 : S. Loeb – SS11 : M. Hirvonen – SS12 : C. Atkinson – SS13 : S. Loeb – SS14 : C. Atkinson. Leg 3 : SS15, SS16, SS17, SS18 and SS19 : F. Duval.
Best performers
F. Duval, 7 fastest times – S. Loeb, 5 – M. Hirvonen et C. Atkinson, 3 –M. Grönholm, 1.

Leaders
SS1 to SS5: S. Loeb – SS6: F. Duval – SS7 to SS19: S. Loeb.

Final leaderboard on 6th Rally Deutschland*
1. S. Loeb/D. Elena (Citroën C4) 3 h 27 min 27,5s
2. F. Duval/P. Pivato (Citroën Xsara) + 20,3 s
3. M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen (Ford Focus) + 1 min 19,1 s
4. M. Grönholm/T. Rautiainen (Ford Focus) + 1 min 36,5 s
5. J. Kopecký/F. Schovánek (Skoda Fabia) + 3 min 07,1 s
6. P. Solberg/P. Mills (Subaru Impreza) + 3 min 14,7 s
7. T. Gardemeister/J. Honkanen (Citroën Xsara) + 3 min 37,5 s
8. JM. Latvala/M. Anttila (Ford Focus) + 5 min 29,3 s
9. M. Wilson/M. Orr (Ford Focus) + 11 min 04,2 s
10. G. Wilks/P. Pugh (Ford Focus) + 19 min 47,8 s

FIA World rally Championship’s rankings ‘Manufacturers’ (round 10/16)*
1. Ford, 143 points – 2. Citroën Total, 102 pts – 3. Subaru, 53 pts– 4. Stobart, 50 pts – 5. OMV Kronos Citroën, 35 pts – 6. Munchi’s, 6 pts.

FIA World rally Championship’s rankings ‘Drivers’ (round 10/16)*
1. M. Grönholm, 80 points – 2. S. Loeb, 72 pts – 3. M. Hirvonen, 63 pts – 4. P. Solberg, 29 pts -5. D. Sordo, 28 pts – 6. H. Solberg, 28 pts –– 7. C. Atkinson, 20 pts – 8. JM. Latvala, 13 pts – 9. T. Gardemeister, 10 pts – 10. M. Stohl, 9 pts – 11. D. Carlsson, 9 pts – 12. J. Kopecky, 8 pts – 13. F. Duval, 8 pts – 14. G. Galli, 5 pts – 15. Pons, 3 pts – 16. U. Aava, 2pts – 17. M. Wilson, J. Hanninen et
M. Östberg, 1pt.
* Subject to final publications of the results by the FIA.

ENDS

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