Rally Spain – (21– 24 October 2010) – Day 3 - Loeb and Elena make the C4 WRC part of rallying legend
Three weeks after bagging the 2010 World Rally Championship titles*, Sébastien Loeb, DanielElena and the Citroën Total World Rally Team again showed their superiority by winning RallySpain. Seb and Daniel led from start to finish scoring their 61st World Championship victory aswell as making the C4 WRC part of rallying legend. This car has never been beaten on asphaltsince its debut in 2007. Citroën scored its fifth triple of the season thanks to Petter Solberg /Chris Patterson and Dani Sordo / Diego Vallejo.
With a lead of over 40 seconds, Loeb tackled the third leg of Rally Spain full of confidence. On the otherhand, second place was up for grabs as Petter Solberg and Dani Sordo were separated by only 16.9s.Sordo was determined to take the fight to the Norwegian for second spot, and he started the day withthe bit between his teeth setting the fastest time in El Priorat (42,04 km), which he followed up withanother first place in the short Serra d’Almos (4,11 km) stage. These performances helped the Spaniardto reduce the gap to 10.8s. “As Seb is way out in front, Petter and I are injecting a bit of excitement intothe event,” laughed Sordo at the midday service halt. “We know that we’ll find it difficult to pull backmuch time on him in the long stage, as we can’t go flat out because we have to look after tyre wear. Inthe short stage, I went pedal to the metal from start to finish. We’ve pulled back six seconds in the twostages, which means that we’ll have problems taking second place unless outside circumstancesintervene. We’re going to continue to keep up the pressure.”
Thanks to his comfortable lead, Loeb was able to drop a few seconds: “I’m driving to make it to thefinish, and I adapt my pace according to the split times of my pursuers. Like the other drivers, I had tolook after my tyres that were overheating in El Priorat.”
After a 30-minute service stop, the drivers set off again to tackle the same stages. Sordo kept up thepace and set another fastest time in El Priorat. Despite reducing the gap to 5.1s, the Spaniard did notmanage to pass Petter Solberg in the last stage: “It was a great scrap. I’m a bit disappointed not to beable to help the Citroën Total World Rally Team to score another double, but it’s still a triple for themake. What I’ll remember about this rally is a couple of good days on asphalt, and I’d like to thank thecrowd for its unflagging support.”
Loeb, who has been unbeaten on asphalt in the C4 WRC since 2007, was full of praise for his car : “Itgives the heartstrings a little tug as ths car has given us a lot of happy moments on all kinds of surfaces.Counting Monte Carlo, we’ve won the fifteen asphalt rallies run over the last four years. This weekend wedidn’t have to do any calculations, so it was much easier than in the previous rallies.”
“What Sébastien and Daniel have done is really quite incredible,” underlined Frédéric Banzet, theCitroën Brand Manager. “Three weeks after the craziness of Rally France, they were able to keep up theirmotivation and performance level to score a victory full of panache. As Spain is Citroën’s second-biggestmarket, this win is very important for the marque. I’d like to congratulate the whole team, and say howmuch I admire their professionalism and their conscientiousness in a relaxed ambience after winning thetwo titles in Alsace.”
* Subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA
THE RALLY IN FIGURES
Sébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena Dani Sordo / Diego VallejoSS13: El Priorat 1 (42,04 km) 2nd +3.0s 1st 1st 3rd +58.3sSS14: La Serra d’Almos 1 (4,11 km) 4th +2.9s 1st 1st 3rd +55.4sSS15: El Priorat 2 (42,04 km) 5th +11.9s 1st 1st 3rd +43.5sSS16: La Serra d’Almos 2 (4,11 km) 5th +3.1s 1st 2nd +0.7s 3rd +41.1sFastest times in the stagesDay 1 – SS1: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4) – SS2: Petter Solberg (Citroën C4) – SS3: Loeb – SS4:Sébastien Ogier (Citroën C4) – SS5: Solberg – SS6: Loeb.Day 2 – SS7 to 9 : Loeb – SS10: Dani Sordo (Citroën C4) – SS11: Loeb – SS12: Solberg.Day 3 – SS13 to 15: Sordo – SS16: Solberg.Best performers: Loeb, 7 fastest times – Solberg and Sordo, 4 ecah – Ogier, 1.Leaders: SS1 to 16: Loeb.
Final overall provisional classification1. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 3h32m59.7s2. P. Solberg / Patterson Citroën C4 +35.3s3. Sordo / Vallejo Citroën C4 +41.1s4. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +1m19.5s5. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus +6m32.9s6. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +8m17.6s7. Al Qassimi / Orr Ford Focus +13m05.7s8. H. Solberg / Prevot Ford Fiesta +13m11.2s9. Block / Gelsomino Ford Focus +16m01.2s10. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 +17m24.1s
