Rally Sweden (11 – 14 February 2010) – Day 3

The third and final day of Rally Sweden did not change anything among the front-runners.Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena finished the first round of the 2010 FIA Rally WorldChampionship in second place. Dani Sordo and Marc Marti, their team-mates in the Citroën TotalWorld Rally Team, brought their C4 WRC home in fourth position.

Starting the third day of the rally 16.6s behind Mikko Hirvonen, Loeb knew that he had to do somethingreally special to wrench the win from the Finn: “Everything’s still possible with 100 kilometres of specialsahead of us, but it’s going to be difficult.”

At the end of the 22-km Rämmen (SS17) special, the C4 WRC driver set his seventh scratch time in therally. But he finished only two-tenths of a second in front of his rival: “There’s no use just matching hispace, I’ll have to go even quicker to close the gap!”

The crews immediately attacked the Värmullsasen special. This time, Hirvonen came out on top.Sébastien finished 7.3s behind and the gap exceeded 20 seconds. “We’ll just have to be happy withsecond place,” said a resigned Loeb when he got back to the Hagfors service park. “I managed to pullout a slight lead by the first splits of SS18, but Mikko fought back and he closed the gap again. I gavemyself a few frights, in particular when I kissed a wall of snow! I said to myself that from now on it’d bebetter to hang on to second and not start the championship with a retirement.”

After the 30-minute stop in the service park the crews competed in the last three stages of the rally. Asthe gaps between the front-runners were quite large, all the drivers gave themselves a wide safety marginand there were no changes in the order until the finish at Karlstad.

“As I’ve always said, I start each rally with victory as my aim. But if I feel that winning isn’t within mygrasp, I prefer to bag the maximum number of points rather than risk an accident,” stated Loeb. “I didn’treckon I was the favourite for this event and I found myself up against a rival who drove a perfect rally. It’sgood to start the season with a large haul of points and I’m looking forward to Mexico to get myrevenge!”

Dani Sordo put his previous day’s disappointment behind him and concentrated on keeping fourth placeon the final day: “My mission was simple: hold on to fourth and score points for Citroën in theManufacturers’ World Championship. Mission accomplished, but sometimes it’s difficult to run at aslower pace than to push really hard like I did on Friday. I’m sorry not to be on the podium, but like SebI’m now looking forward to the next rally.”

“On our rivals’ favourite surface our performances had nothing to envy theirs,” summed up OlivierQuesnel, Citroën Racing. Team Principal: “Sébastien and Dani both drove great rallies but you can’t winthem all! Our drivers’ second and fourth places are a pretty good result in the context of the worldchampionships. And I’d like to finish by adding that we’ll be perfectly placed to tackle the specials on theRally Mexico gravel roads.”

THE RALLY IN FIGURESSébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena Dani Sordo / Marc MartiSS17: Rämmen 1 (21,87 km) 1st 2nd +16’’4 4th +10’’0 4th +1’56’’0SS18: Värmullsasen 1 (23,41 km) 2nd +7’’3 2nd +23’’7 4th +17’’2 4th +2’13’’2SS19: Lesjöfors (10,49 km) 3rd +8’’4 2nd +32’’1 5th +9’’3 4th +2’22’’5SS20: Rämmen 2 (21,87 km) 3rd +5’’6 2nd +36’’7 4th +7’’4 4th +2’28’’9SS21: Värmullsasen 2 (23,41 km) 3rd +10’’4 2nd +42’’3 5th +17’’5 4th+2’41’’6

Fastest timesDay 1 – SS1: Dani Sordo (Citroën C4) – SS2 et 3: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4) – SS4 and 5: MikkoHirvonen (Ford Focus) – SS6: Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus) – SS7: Hirvonen – SS8: Loeb.Day 2 – SS9: Hirvonen – SS10 to 12: Loeb – SS13: Latvala – SS14: Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus) –SS15: Latvala – SS16: Martin Prokop (Ford Fiesta).Day 3: SS17: Loeb – SS18 and 19: Hirvonen – SS20 and 2: Latvala.Best performers: Loeb, 7 best times – Hirvonen, 6 – Latvala, 5 – Sordo, Grönholm and Prokop, 1.Leaders: SS1: Sordo – SS2 and 3: Loeb – SS4 to 21: Hirvonen.

Final overall general classification (subject to the official publication of the results)1. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus 3h09’30’’42. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 +42’’33. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +1’15’’44. Sordo / Marti Citroën C4 +2’41’’65. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 +4’15’’36. H. Solberg / Minor Ford Focus +5’23’’47. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +7’53’’98. Östberg / Andersson Subaru Impreza +9’22’’29. Solberg / Mills Citroën C4 +10’17’’510. Andersson / Fredriksson Skoda Fabia +12’08’’9

PROVISIONAL FIA RALLY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS

1 Mikko Hirvonen 25 252 Sébastien Loeb 18 183 Jari-Matti Latvala 15 154 Dani Sordo 12 125 Sébastien Ogier 10 106 Henning Solberg 8 87 Matthew Wilson 6 68 Mads Östberg 4 49 Petter Solberg 2 210 PG Andersson 1 1

1 BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT 40 402 Citroën Total WRT 30 303 Citroën Junior Team 14 144 Stobart M-Sport Ford 14 14