Rally de España - (21-24 October 2010) – Day 2
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia started the Rally de España in second place Saturday morning, butlost 15 minutes as the result of a small impact on the second stage of the day. The Citroën JuniorTeam kept on going and are now aiming for a top-10 finish, which would allow them to defendtheir second position in the FIA World Rally Championship.
After an opening day on gravel, Spain’s round of the World Rally Championship continued on Catalanasphalt. Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia started the day perfectly, placed less than four secondsbehind Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena. In Santa Martina 1, the Citroën Junior Team’s Citroën C4WRC set second-fastest time, consolidating its position in the overall classification.Sébastien and Julien seemed to be heading for another fastest stage time on La Mussara 1 (SS8). “Wewere keeping up a good pace and our split times were very encouraging,” said the n°7 C4 WRC driver.“Just before the end of the stage, I misunderstood a pace note which said that the corner tightened. Iwent into the corner too quickly and we hit the guardrail on the outside. The front-right track control armbroke and we had to stop to change it.”
The crew managed to change the part in less than 15 minutes before continuing to the next stage.Having been warned of the incident, the Citroën Junior Team got ready to deal with it. “We had toprepare the service plan in order to make sure we fixed all the damage sustained,” explained ClémentMitchell, the engineer in charge of the French crew’s C4 WRC. “With an entire stage to run under thesetricky circumstances, certain parts of the transmission could be subject to unusual patterns of wear. Theworst-case scenario would be that we had to swap the gearbox for the one that was used on gravel.Luckily, the damage did not turn out to be too serious. After the 30-minute service halt, we were able togive Sébastien back a C4 WRC that was once more in perfect condition.”
Sébastien and Julien had dropped down to 17th place but they were determined to fight back throughoutthe second loop of stages. They used the next 63 competitive kilometres to battle their way back up to14th place.
“I don’t at all regret having pushed hard in the morning,” said Sébastien. “I wanted to try and keep upwith Sébastien Loeb’s pace on asphalt. We were fighting with him and our split times were very good.What happened was a pity as we will lose some World Championship points but I always prefer to attackeven if it means taking a few risks sometimes. Tomorrow, we need to continue to drive with the objectiveof taking 2.5 seconds per kilometre off the driver currently classified 10th. We’ll see after the first runthrough the long stage if this goal is a realistic one or not…”
THE RALLY BY NUMBERSSébastien Ogier / Julien IngrassiaSS7: Santa Marina 1 (26.51 km) 3rd +5’’3 2nd +8’’2SS8: La Mussara 1 (20.48 km) 43rd+15’33’’6 17th +15’44’’6SS9: Riudecanyes 1 (16.32 km) 14th +56’’1 17th +17’10’’7SS10: Santa Marina 2 (26.51 km) 3rd +1’’8 15th +17’09’’6SS11: La Mussara 2 (20.48 km) 4th +5’’0 14th +17’14’’6SS12: Riudecanyes 2 (16.32 km) 5th +8’’6 14th +17’21’’0
Fastest stage timesDay 1 – SS1: Loeb (Citroën C4) – SS2: Solberg (Citroën C4) – SS3: Loeb – SS4: Ogier (Citroën C4) –SS5: Solberg – SS6: Loeb.Day 2 – SS7 to SS9: Loeb – SS10: Sordo (Citroën C4) – SS11: Loeb – SS12: Solberg.Best performers: Loeb 7 fastest times, Solberg 3, Ogier and Sordo 1.Leaders: SS1 to SS12: Loeb.
Classification at end of day two1. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 2:40’01’’92. P. Solberg / Patterson Citroën C4 +44’’43. Sordo / Vallejo Citroën C4 +1’01’’34. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +1’11’’45. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus +6’12’’56. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +6’28’’37. Turan / Zsiros Ford Focus +7’48’’68. H. Solberg / Prevot Ford Fiesta +9’50’’39. Al Qassimi / Orr Ford Focus +9’54’’310. Block / Gelsomino Ford Focus +13’20’’9…14. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 +17’21’’0...
