In Greece, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia scored their fifth world championship victory after a thrilling duel with their teammates, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena. This result gave Citroën its 22nd doublé in the World Rally Championship, an outright record! Thanks to their 100th podium in the WRC, Loeb and Elena have increased their lead in the Drivers’ World Championship. The Citroën Total World Rally Team too has widened the gap in the Manufacturers’ title chase.
After two long legs, the last day of the Acropolis Rally was like a final sprint with only 65 timed kilometers.But the two passages through Aghii Theodori – a stage that has often decided the outcome of the event –meant that the crews had to tackle it in a humble frame of mind. Sébastien Loeb, the overall leader with only2.2s in hand over his nearest pursuer, and handicapped by the cleaning phenomenon, knew it would bedifficult for him to fight for victory. In the first passage through Aghii Theodori (SS14), Sébastien Ogierovertook the seven-time world champion to lead by a tenth of a second. But Loeb fought back and retook firstplace in New Pissia 1, also by a tenth!
“I’m in a situation in which I have to take risks to defend my position. I pushed even harder compared to thefirst two days,” he admitted at the mid-leg halt. “Despite that it went off well and we managed a gooddamage limitation exercise. As for winning, I don’t know yet. I’ll have to see how big the impact of cleaning issecond time through.”
“Seb was very quick and we didn’t make up much time on him. I thought that cleaning would play a moreimportant role this morning. Maybe I didn’t push hard enough. I’ll have to up the pace and take more riskssecond time though,” added Ogier.
While Loeb stated that he had driven a perfect stage in Aghii Theodori 2, Ogier made the break and pulledout 6.2s over his team-mate. He was back in the lead again and he put himself out of range of a possibleattack in New Pissia 2 increasing the gap to over 10 seconds. The 4-kilometer Power Stage changed nothingand Ogier set the quickest time, 9/1000s in front of Loeb: The Citroën drivers scored an additional 2 and 3points each.
Ogier savoured his third victory of the season: “This perfect result, rewarded by twenty-eight points, is goingto do our championship hopes a lot of good! I’d really like to thank the whole team for two things. One, itgave Seb and I the same chances to battle for victory, and I’m proud to have honoured their trust with a win.Secondly, I have to underline the reliability of the DS3 WRC, which had a problem-free three days in a racethat was run at high speed.”
Despite his frustration at having been first out on the road for two days, Loeb also drew positive conclusions:“Before the start I wasn’t gunning for outright victory above all else. I gave everything I had, but racecircumstances meant that I wasn’t able to fight on equal terms. I still think I was the quickest. The twentypoints I’ve scored will help me open up the gap over Mikko Hirvonen even further.”
“This double that we’ve racked up on our rivals’ favourite hunting ground is a fantastic result for Citroën,”summed up Olivier Quesnel, the Citroën Racing Team Principal. “I’m very happy for our two drivers whohave both scored precious points in the world championship. With six victories in seven rallies, we can be veryproud of our first part of the season.”
The figuresSébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena Sébastien Ogier / Julien IngrassiaSS14: Aghii Theodori 1 (19,42 km) 4th +7.7s 2nd +0.1s 3rd +5.4s 1stSS15: New Pissia 1 (11,37 km) 4th +1.7s 1st 5th +1.9s 2nd +0.1sSS16: Aghii Theodori 2 (19,42 km) 5th +7.3s 2nd +6.1s 2nd +1.1s 1stSS17: New Pissia 2 (11,37 km) 4th +5.0s 2nd +10.5s 3rd +0.4s 1stSS18: New Loutraki (4,00 km) 2nd +0.009s 2nd +10.5s 1st 1st
Fastest times in the stagesDay 1 – SS1 to 4: Petter Solberg (Citroën DS3) – SS5: Sébastien Ogier (Citroën DS3) – SS6: SébastienLoeb (Citroën DS3).Day 2 – SS7 to 9: Ogier – SS10 : Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Fiesta) – SS11: Loeb – SS12: Ogier – SS13:Latvala.Day 3: SS14 and 15 : Latvala – SS16: Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Fiesta) – SS17: Latvala – SS18: OgierBest performers: Ogier, 6 fastest times – Latvala, 5 – P. Solberg, 4 – Loeb, 2 – Hirvonen, 1.Leaders: SS1 to 9: P. Solberg – SS12: Ogier – SS13 Loeb – SS14: Ogier – SS15: Loeb – SS16 to 18:Ogier.
Provisional overall general classification1 S. Ogier / J. Ingrassia Citroën DS3 WRC 4h04M 44.3s2 S. Loeb / D. Elena Citroën DS3 WRC +10.5s3 M. Hirvonen / J. Lehtinen Ford Fiesta RS WRC +13.4s4 P. Solberg / C. Patterson Citroën DS3 WRC +38.7s5 H. Solberg / I. Minor Ford Fiesta RS WRC +5m 24.7s6 M. Wilson / S. Martin Ford Fiesta RS WRC +6m 54.6s7 K. Räikkönen / K. Lindström Citroën DS3 WRC +8m 29.3s8 J. Hanninen / M. Markkula Skoda Fabia S2000 +11m 34.6s9 JM. Latvala / M. Anttila Ford Fiesta RS WRC +13m 08.8s10 D. Kuipers / F. Miclotte Ford Fiesta RS WRC +15m 10.0s
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