Publicat in: May 25, 2009, Vizualizari: 49
If there is one useful tip for winning championships, it is to make sure that every disaster happens at the same time, not spread progressively over the season. Citroen went to Sardinia full of hope and confidence that they would gain a record seventh successive world rally win but it did not happen that way. It seemed a good idea for Sordo to incur a first day time penalty so as to force Mikko Hirvonen to run in front of him on the road., "We had a damper problem," he said, unconvincingly. He then did have a damper problem when his car impacted a rock thrown on to the road by Hirvonen’s passing car! At service the damage was found to be more extensive and they had to leave service with work unfinished, and by mistake they forgot put a second spare wheel in the car and the codriver had ro run back for it.
Driving first car on the road Loeb was struggling on the first day, so the team suggested they used slowing tactics to force him to fall back in the second day’s running order, but that was not so simple. When you run first car on the road, you don’t control the race. The drivers behind are in control. The team therefore assumed that Ford would also play tactics with both their cars, and so they guessed a 20 second delay on the stage should serve their purpose. Not good tactic. They did not realise that Hirvonen would get confused in the required tactics, and when Ford saw that happened, they cancelled plans to hold Latvala back and speeded him up instead. Sebastien dropped from second to third overall, not worth the effort at all.
Day 2 bought more dramas for Citroen, especially when Sebastien Loeb checked into the start of stage nine one minute late, by accident. But Loeb’s shining moment came when he punctured and in a lightning manoeuvre lost only a minute or so, neatly making the track more dusty for the next driver along, Petter Solberg’s Xsara, a car which he wanted to beat! Loeb finished Day 2 just 2.2 seconds behind Solberg. But Sordo was in more difficulty, suffering turbocharger troubles which incurred a time control penalty as well as delays on stages. And meanwhile the Citroen Junior cars of Sebastien Ogier and Conrad Rautenbach were having suspension troubles and Evgeniy Novikov had his gearshift lever break off in his hand...
On the final morning there was a lot of dust and the two Fords, especially Latvala, enjoyed clear conditions while Loeb had Petter’s dust. Getting back up to the podium was not going to be easy for Loeb at all. Then Sordo had a repeat of his turbo problem, while Ogier’s car had been too badly damaged to be repairable at service. And then, for a reason which nobody would explain, the decision was taken to withdraw Rautenbach’s entry at the final service . "Electrical trouble" was the reason but it looked like a good way to get one extra championship point for the official Citroen Total team. The penalty for Loeb of two minutes was really the final straw, even though three years ago his teammate Dani Sordo was excluded in Japan for the same - through more serious - offence. And, to make it worse, a special visitor to the event was Automobiles Citroen’s new general manager Jean Marc Galles, who came to see his first ever rally and hoped to experience and share in the team’s continued glory. And what did he see along with all the dramas? An eight year old Xsara beating all the C4s. Good to get all the bad news over in one rally...
3mmm
You can listen to an interview with Sebastien Loeb at the end of Rally d'Italia Sardegna by clicking here
You can listen to an interview with Sven Smets, Citroen Sporting Director, by clicking here
If there is one useful tip for winning championships, it is to make sure that every disaster happens at the same time, not spread progressively over the season. Citroen went to Sardinia full of hope and confidence that they would gain a record seventh successive world rally win but it did not happen that way. It seemed a good idea for Sordo to incur a first day time penalty so as to force Mikko Hirvonen to run in front of him on the road., "We had a damper problem," he said, unconvincingly. He then did have a damper problem when his car impacted a rock thrown on to the road by Hirvonen’s passing car! At service the damage was found to be more extensive and they had to leave service with work unfinished, and by mistake they forgot put a second spare wheel in the car and the codriver had ro run back for it.
Driving first car on the road Loeb was struggling on the first day, so the team suggested they used slowing tactics to force him to fall back in the second day’s running order, but that was not so simple. When you run first car on the road, you don’t control the race. The drivers behind are in control. The team therefore assumed that Ford would also play tactics with both their cars, and so they guessed a 20 second delay on the stage should serve their purpose. Not good tactic. They did not realise that Hirvonen would get confused in the required tactics, and when Ford saw that happened, they cancelled plans to hold Latvala back and speeded him up instead. Sebastien dropped from second to third overall, not worth the effort at all.
Day 2 bought more dramas for Citroen, especially when Sebastien Loeb checked into the start of stage nine one minute late, by accident. But Loeb’s shining moment came when he punctured and in a lightning manoeuvre lost only a minute or so, neatly making the track more dusty for the next driver along, Petter Solberg’s Xsara, a car which he wanted to beat! Loeb finished Day 2 just 2.2 seconds behind Solberg. But Sordo was in more difficulty, suffering turbocharger troubles which incurred a time control penalty as well as delays on stages. And meanwhile the Citroen Junior cars of Sebastien Ogier and Conrad Rautenbach were having suspension troubles and Evgeniy Novikov had his gearshift lever break off in his hand...
On the final morning there was a lot of dust and the two Fords, especially Latvala, enjoyed clear conditions while Loeb had Petter’s dust. Getting back up to the podium was not going to be easy for Loeb at all. Then Sordo had a repeat of his turbo problem, while Ogier’s car had been too badly damaged to be repairable at service. And then, for a reason which nobody would explain, the decision was taken to withdraw Rautenbach’s entry at the final service . "Electrical trouble" was the reason but it looked like a good way to get one extra championship point for the official Citroen Total team. The penalty for Loeb of two minutes was really the final straw, even though three years ago his teammate Dani Sordo was excluded in Japan for the same - through more serious - offence. And, to make it worse, a special visitor to the event was Automobiles Citroen’s new general manager Jean Marc Galles, who came to see his first ever rally and hoped to experience and share in the team’s continued glory. And what did he see along with all the dramas? An eight year old Xsara beating all the C4s. Good to get all the bad news over in one rally...
3mmm
You can listen to an interview with Sebastien Loeb at the end of Rally d'Italia Sardegna by clicking here
You can listen to an interview with Sven Smets, Citroen Sporting Director, by clicking here
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