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THREE IN A ROW AS CITROËN DOMINATES THE WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Citroen dominated the Cyprus round of the World Rally Championship at the weekend (13-15 May) with World Champion Sébastien Loeb steering his Citroen Xsara WRC to his third win in a row and his second successive Cyprus victory with a winning margin of more than four minutes.

A remarkable performance in second place completed Citroen’s joy, with privateer Manfred Stohl bringing his Citroen Xsara WRX across the line with a performance normally reserved for the factory-backed teams.

Loeb and Stohl put in performance of speed and reliability as their rivals fell by the wayside, crippled by the stones, rocks and dust in what is now probably the toughest event in the WRC calendar. With the utter reliability of their Citroen Xsaras, Loeb recorded 12 fastest stage times, which meant that on the first two days of the event only one other driver for each day got a look-in on the leader board for fastest stage times.

With so many of his rivals crashing out of the event, Loeb developed a huge lead early on, so it was a matter of staying focussed on the event and not falling into the many traps that caught out other drivers and teams.

"This is the moment we've been waiting to reach for the past two days,” said a relieved Loeb at the end of the event. “Ever since the real battle ended in fact with Gronholm and Solberg. It's a bit of a strange win and I feel a certain relief that it's over. The car was perfect and didn't give us any problems, and we didn't make any mistakes. This win may not have been all that exciting but, like all the others, it's worth ten valuable points!"

The win puts Loeb a healthy 11 points ahead in the WRC Driver’s Championship, but team mate Duval’s failure to finish, he crashed out on day two, means that Citroen still trails Peugeot in the Manufacturers’ Championship.

The other big story of the event was the performance delivered by Manfred Stohl in his Team Kronos Racing-run Citroen Xsara WRC, not only giving the young Austrian his best ever result, it is also the best ever result for an Austrian rally driver.

"I'm not one to show my feelings, but I'm thrilled to bits inside!” said Stohl at the finish.“I am pleased that I succeeded in holding off Henning Solberg and then Markko Märtin. I also want to underline the excellent work put in by the Kronos team. This is a great result for all those who believed in me at the beginning of my career and who enabled me to make a living out of my passion"

Guy Fréquelin was obviously very pleased too, but didn't conceal that his pleasure was dampened by yesterday's retirement of François Duval and Stéphane Prévot and by its consequences:

"Stéphane has told me that he doesn't want to co-drive for François any more. I've got until 6 p.m. on Monday to find a solution for the crew of our second car and register it with the FIA. That said, I must congratulate the team. It has come through the first – and perhaps toughest! – of the three rough rallies of the championship very well. The result confirms what we had hoped, that the set-up of the car and our new Michelin tyres would be a match for these conditions. As usual, Sébastien was in majestic form and that has been justly rewarded in the Drivers' standings. I can't hide though that I am very disappointed that what looked to be a promising weekend in terms of the Manufacturers' championship didn't come off. I would finally like to praise Manfred Stohl, Ilka Minor and everyone at Kronos Racing. Citroën Sport couldn't wish for better ambassadors for our privately run cars."

(ends)

Stage wins

Leg 1. SS1: Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza) – SS2, 3, 4, 5 and 6: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën Xsara).

Leg 2. SS7, 8, 9, 10: S. Loeb – SS11: Toni Gardemeister (Ford Focus) and S. Loeb* – SS12: Gilles Panizzi (Mitsubishi Lancer) and S. Loeb*.

* notional times.

Leg 3. SS13, 14, 15: S. Loeb – SS16: T. Gardemeister – SS17: Markko Märtin (Peugeot 307) – SS18: T. Gardemeister.

Best performers

S. Loeb, 14fastest times (including 2 'notional times') - T. Gardemeister, 3 - P. Solberg, 1 – G. Panizzi, 1 – M. Märtin, 1.

Leaders

SS1: P. Solberg – SS2 to 18: S. Loeb.

Final classification of Cyprus Rally 2005

  1. S. Loeb/D. Elena (Citroën Xsara)5 h 02 min 29,4 s
  2. M. Stohl/I. Minor (Citroën Xsara) + 4 min 09,5 s
  3. M. Märtin/M. Park (Peugeot 307)+ 4 min 41,9 s
  4. H. Solberg/C. Menkerud (Ford Focus)+ 5 min 15,7 s
  5. T. Gardemeister/J. Honkanen (Ford Focus)+ 7 min 37,3 s
  6. R. Kresta/J. Mozny (Ford Focus)+ 10 min 17,4 s
  7. H. Rovanperä/R. Pietilainen (Mitsubishi Lancer)+ 12 min 18,7 s
  8. D. Carlsson/M. Andersson (Peugeot 206)+ 16 min 03,2 s …

FIA World Rally Championship after round 6 - Manufacturers

1. Peugeot, 62 points – 2. Citroën, 53 pts - 3. Ford, 44 pts – 4. Subaru, 38 pts – 5. Mitsubishi, 29 pts - 6. Škoda, 8pts.

FIA World Rally Championship after round 6 - Drivers

1. S. Loeb, 45 pts – 2. P. Solberg, 34 points - 3. M. Märtin, 34 pts – 4. T. Gardemeister, 28 pts - 5. M. Grönholm, 26 pts – 6. H. Rovanperä, 13 pts - 7. M. Stohl, 11 pts - 8. H. Solberg, 9 pts - 9. R. Kresta, 8 pts – 10. G. Panizzi, 7 pts – 11. F. Duval, 5 pts – 12. D. Carlsson, 4 pts - 13. A. Warmbold, 4 pts - 14. G. Galli, 3 pts - 15. Ch. Atkinson, 2 pts – 16. J. Pykälistö, 1pt…

For further information:

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Miles Williams

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Citroën Australia / Mob: 0419 800 520
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Edward Rowe

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5/16/2005