Page 1 /

CITROEN STRENGTHENS ITS ATTACK ON THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN CYPRUS

With a second place for Sébastien Loeb and a fourth place for Carlos Sainz in the weekend’s (14-16 May 2004) Rally of Cyprus, Citroen has strengthened its attack on both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ 2004 World Rally Championship titles.

In some of the toughest conditions of the season, which saw favourites such as Subaru’s Solberg and Peugeot’s Rovanperä fall by the wayside and Ford’s Martin have problems with the dirt, dust and rocks, Sébastien Loeb put in another mature and skilled performance that belies his youth. For the majority of the event he held second place, keeping his Citroen Xsara on the road and even putting six fastest stage timesbut not risking all to catch event winner Gronholm.

Coming second can sometimes lead to regrets, but that was not the case for Sébastien Loeb:

"Above all, I wanted a top result here in order to stay in the leading pack in the Drivers' championship,” said Loeb at the end of the rally. “Obviously, if a chance to win had come my way, I would have snapped it up. And I certainly kept my eyes open, but Marcus Grönholm was very quck and gave absolutely nothing away. Compared with last year, the gap between us and the winner has been dramtically reduced and we finished one place higher, even though there were practically no retirements. That speaks volumes for the fantastic work the team has done on the car."

The result sees Sébastien Loeb hold on to second place in the Drivers' championship, while Carlos moves up one place to fifth. In the Manufacturers' standings, Citroën has made up most of the deficit that separated it from Ford prior to Cyprus, a valuable harvest all in all considering that the two next rounds, Greece and Turkey, also promise to be hot and rough.

Guy Fréquelin has every reason to be pleased. To begin with, the result matches his pre-event objective to the letter, namely two cars inside the top five and one on the podium. Meanwhile, the Xsara WRC not only maintained its excellent reliability record but also proved to be up with the best of its rivals in performance terms too. Moreover, Sébastien Loeb was the best stage performer of the weekend with a score of six fastest times, equal with Petter Solberg.

"The set-up of the cars could have perhaps been better on Day 1," notes Guy Fréquelin, "but the step forward we have achieved as far as performance goes is considerable. This is a strong close formation result, the best we could have hoped for in normal circumstances."

Carlos Sainz would also like to have capitalised on Xsara's performance progress: "It wasn't an easy rally for me. Not the sort of weekend after which you can say to yourself that everything was 100 per cent. In fact, I didn't really have what could be considered a perfect run at any of the loops of stages. There were moments when my shockabsorbers went off and others when I had to use tyres that weren't the most competitive, simply because my quota didn't inlcude enough GW patterns which are the most resistant to wear. To have finished forth is therefore not so bad, and a good way to prepare for Greece."

Overall classification Cyprus Rally 2004

  1. M. Grönholm/T. Rautiainen (Peugeot 307)4 h 58 min 44,5 s
  2. S. Loeb/D. Elena (Citroën Xsara)+ 54 s
  3. M. Märtin/M.Park (Ford Focus)+ 1 min 09,1 s
  4. C. Sainz/M. Marti (Citroën Xsara)+ 3 min 18 s
  5. H. Rovanperä/R.Pietilainen (Peugeot 307)+ 7 min 09 s
  6. P. Solberg/Ph. Mills (Subaru Impreza)+ 10 min 23,1 s
  7. M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen (Subaru Impreza)+ 10 min 34,9 s
  8. J. Tuohino/J. Aho (Ford Focus)+ 14 min 10,7 s …/…

FIA World Manufacturers’ Rally Championship

1. Ford, 53 pts - 2. Citroën, 51 pts - 3. Peugeot, 47 pts – 4. Subaru, 36 pts – 5. Mitsubishi, 5 pts.

FIA World Drivers’ Rally Championship

1.M. Grönholm, 34 pts - 2.S. Loeb, 33 points – 3. M. Märtin, 32 pts - 4. P. Solberg, 26 pts - 5. C. Sainz, 18 pts - 6. F. Duval, 14 pts - 7. H. Rovanperä, 8 pts – 8. M. Hirvonen, 8 pts – 9. J. Tuohino, 6 pts - 10. F. Loix, 4 pts – 11. G. Panizzi, 4 pts - 12. H. Solberg, 3 pts – 13. J. Välimäki, 2 pts - 14. D. Carlsson, 2 pts – 15. O. Burri, 1 pt.

(ends)

For further information:

Citroën Australia Media Web Site:

Miles Williams

/ Tel: (02) 9558 7111
General Manager / Fax: (02) 9558 7722
Citroën Australia / Mob: 0419 800 520
E-Mail:

Edward Rowe

/ Tel: (02) 9558 7111
Public Relations Manager / Fax: (02) 9558 7722
Citroën Australia / Mob: 0407 913 244
E-Mail:

Web site:

EJR/ejr/007

5/17/2004