Created following the inclusion of the new WRC3 category in this seasons World Rally Championship, the Citroen Top Driver series is set to make its bow on the world scene at Rally de Portugal in a few weeks time. The formula has already been a huge success, as no fewer than nine European crews will line up at the start of the rally in a Citroen DS3 R3.

The final rung of the ladder leading to the upper echelons of rallying, Citroen Top Driver is above all an affordable, professional formula which will reward the winning crew with a programme of six WRC2 rallies in 2014. Composed of four gravel rallies and two tarmac events, it will also feature a team competition for outfits entering at least two cars. As entries for Rally de Portugal are now closed, these eight crews will now head for the Algarve in order to battle it out in Citroen DS3 R3s. Five different nationalities will be represented with the Swiss pair of Francesco Parli and Federico Della Casa, the German Christian Riedemann, the Italian Simone Campedelli, the French trio of Sbastien Chardonnet, Quentin Gilbert andBryan Bouffier, the Irishmans Keith Cronin and Alastair Fisher.

We are pleased with the success that Citroens new challenge has enjoyed for this first round of the season, commented a delighted Marek Nawarecki, Customer Racing Manager for Citroen Racing. Among the entrants, we have two 2012 Citroen Racing Trophy winners in Quentin Gilbert (France) and Keith Cronin (UK), whilst the other drivers have produced strong performances in national promotional formulas and championships, such as Sbastien Chardonnet, Bryan Bouffier and Christian Riedemann. This reflects the spirit of Citroen Top Driver perfectly since they will now be able to compete against each other in an international formula. Given the quality of the field, I think we can all look forward to an exciting, closely contested season.