The Citroën Junior Team crew of Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia have maintained secondplace in the FIA World Rally Championship with a sixth-place finish in their Citroën C4 WRC on theRallye de France-Alsace. Just two rounds of the season now remain.
The French crew set off from sixth place this morning after incurring 10 minutes of road penalties, due tore-starting the rally after retiring from day two. “There’s not much left for us to play for on this rally,”explained Sébastien as he got into his C4 WRC. “But it’s important to get to the finish in order to scorepoints.”
Two fifth-fastest and one sixth-fastest time later, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia finished sixth on theRallye de France-Alsace.
“The day turned out to be quite short after one of the two runs through the only real stage wascancelled,” said Sébastien at the finish. “There was no reason for us to push, but it was very important totake this sixth place for the points.”
“This was a really difficult rally for us,” he continued. “I don’t think anyone has ever seen conditions asdirty as this on asphalt. But we’re making progress on this surface, despite our lack of experience. We’regetting closer to the frontrunners on every rally.”
With two rounds left before the end of the season, Sébastien Ogier now has a 22-point advantage overPetter Solberg. “This sixth place gives us some important points for the championship,” he pointed out.“We’ve still got quite a comfortable margin. But there are two rallies left, which we are going to have totake very seriously if we want to finish second in the drivers’ championship. That would be a great resultfor us.”
Benoit Nogier, Citroën Junior Team manager, underlined the positive aspects at the end of the Rallye deFrance-Alsace. “Citroën’s key objective was to wrap up both world titles this weekend,” he said. “We’revery proud – and very moved – to see Citroën and Sébastien Loeb win in France and claim thechampionship at home.”
“The Citroën Junior Team had a slightly more difficult weekend,” he continued. “Kimi got off to anencouraging start before making a mistake that stopped him from finishing on Saturday. He chose not tocontinue in the rally, as he preferred to save his car for the forthcoming Rally of Spain. Sébastien made abrilliant start once more, mixing it with the best in the business. There’s a little bit of performance left tocome from him before he can start challenging for victories on this surface, but he’s getting closer andcloser. His small mistake on Saturday deprived him of a podium but he has hardly slipped up this seasonat all. Sébastien’s goal of improving his performance on asphalt has been achieved. He maintains secondplace on the championship as the season draws to a close.”
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