MUD, SWEAT & CHEERS AS CITROËN CLAIMS RALLY TURKEY VICTORY

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena drove a faultless final day in Rally Turkey to score a hat-trick of wins in the 2010 World Rally Championship. The latest success for the pair increases their lead to forty points over nearest rival, Petter Solberg. The Citroën Total World Rally Team now has a 15-point lead over the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team in the manufacturer’s standing.

Heavy rain on Saturday night and Sunday morning made the final day of the event hazardous and unpredictable, with two stages – Deniz (SS18) and Mudarli (SS19) – cancelled because they were impassable. The day started with the Ballica (SS20) stage and Loeb and Elena were first out, taking advantage of the damp conditions to set the quickest time and putting in an impressive 85-metre jump. ‘It was an incredible sensation’, exclaimed Sébastien Loeb. ‘We were up in the air for several seconds. In the recce, not for a moment did we imagine that we’d jump so far.’

Despite taking third place overall after Sunday’s first stage, fellow Citroën driver, Dani Sordo, slipped up in a muddy section on the re-opened Deniz 2 (SS21) stage, hitting a tree and breaking one of the car’s wishbones. ‘I wasn’t the first to go off in that place; it was a real skating rink. The car hit a tree and a wishbone broke. Just behind me, Sébastien Ogier went off in the same spot too, and our cars touched. Unlike us, he was able to restart.’ commented the Spaniard.

‘This victory gives me a lot of pleasure,’ said Loeb. ‘I won in a rally where, from a sporting point of view, the outcome of the battle was very indecisive for a long time. The route was a real challenge with some very quick sections and others in which you had to nurse the car. Once again the reliability of the C4 WRC was a huge help.’

FINAL LEADERBOARD ON RALLY TURKEY*                        
1. Loeb/Elena (Citroën C4)      3h 01min 38.7s
2.P.Solberg/Mills (Citroën C4)     +54.5s
3. Hirvonen/Lehtinen (Ford Focus)     +1min 43.4s
4. Ogier/Ingrassia (Citroën C4)      +3min 46.0s
5. Räikkönen/Lindström (Citroën C4)      +6min 44.3s
6. Villagra/Diaz (Ford Focus)     +7min 56.7s
7. Wilson/ Martin (Ford Focus)      +8min 24.3s
8. Latvala/Antilla (Ford Focus)     +19min 44.2s

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP MANUFACTURER STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 4 OF 13*

1st Citroën Total WRT, 126pts; 2nd BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT, 111pts; 3rd Citroën Junior Team, 75pts; 4th Stobart M-Sport Ford, 56pts; Munchi’s Ford, 26pts

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP DRIVER STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 4 OF 13*

1st S. Loeb, 93pts; 2nd P. Solberg 53pts; 3rd M.Hirvonen, 52pts; 4th J-M Latvala, 47pts; 5th S. Ogier, 45pts; 6th D. Sordo, 24pts

*All results subject to FIA confirmation.