TOUGH TIMES FOR CITROËN IN MEXICO

dogboy

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After their outstanding start to the season with wins in the first two
rounds of the 2004 World Rally Championship season in Monte Carlo and
Sweden, the Championship's debut round in Mexico has reminded Citroën just
how unforgiving rallying can be, but a third place for Carlos Sainz was
just enough to keep Citroën in second place for manufacturers' title chase
and Citroën's Loeb is now first equal in the drivers title race.

It all started to well for the team, with Sebastien Loeb in the lead at the
end of day one, with two fastest stage times to his credit, and Carlos
Sainz placing his Citroën Xsara WRC in a solid third place. Loeb took over
the lead when spectators pushed Petter Solberg's Subaru into the service
area, breaking the 'no outside help' rule and incurring Solberg a five
minute penalty. Not that Loeb was expecting to be in the lead on day one.
His wins in Europe meant that he was first on the road and provided him, he
thought, with the unenviable job of being the road sweeper, pushing all the
loose gravel off the road.

"Last night's rain cancelled out the 'sweeper' role that I might have had
to play, as I was first on the road," said Loeb at the end of day one. "I
don't think I lost any time due to that, except perhaps in SS3, when I also
lost a few seconds by stalling in a hairpin. Despite some small brake
problems, which meant that the pedal was a bit 'long' towards the end of
the special stages, it has been a good day."

Mexico is 2004's first debut event and presented the teams with a host of
challenges and more than just unknown terrain. The stages are more than
1000 metres higher than any previous World Championship Rally, providing a
challenge not just for the engine builders, who have to provide power units
that allow for much less oxygen in the air, but also for the
aerodynamicists, who have work with thinner air flowing over the wings.

For Sebastian Loeb, he had the advantage of doing the event last year
before its elevation to world status, although while the stages were the
same as last year, they ran in the reverse direction this year.

Unfortunately all of Citroën's planning and Sebastien's experience came to
an end five kilometres into stage six, the second stage of Day Two.

"Coming out of a very fast corner, the car took off," Sebastien explained,
"Where it touched back down, the road was cambered, with, in the middle, a
rock solidly set in the compacted earth. The sump guard was smashed upwards
into the engine sump and the oil emptied out of the damaged sump."

What happened next was inevitable: a drop in oil pressure, a damaged
engine, and retirement.

"Of course, this is a great disappointment," Sebastien continued. "We were
leading, setting our pace on that of Markko [Märtin]. Yesterday, Petter's
problems put me in the lead. Today, I'm the one to suffer bad luck. The
outcome of a rally sometimes depends on fate. You have to learn to accept
it."

Carlos, meanwhile was having his own battles, not with stones, dirt and
dust, but with red tape. To cut costs, the number of tyres that drivers can
use is limited this season and a list of tyres used during the event by
each driver is kept by the organizers. But a slip-up in the paper work
meant that Carlos had to drive more than 77 km of competitive mileage on
tyres that were well past their use-by date.

And, as if this wasn't enough for the Spaniard, one of the tyres had a
puncture on the very first stage. Replacing it, he battled on until one of
the other tyres could take no more, so he was then forced to pull out the
puncture tyre, which had, by now, remarkably fixed itself and partially
reinflated thanks to Michelin's inventive ATS self repairing tyre system,
and fit it back on to the Xsara.

"Starting off on the third loop, I did my best to get rid over any pressure
from the 'tyre incident'," explained Carlos. "I tried to go as quickly as
possible while managing the tyres' wear rate. Today, the rally has had its
fair share of surprises. It could be the same again tomorrow. Nothing is
over yet - it is still all to play for!"

A remarkably relaxed comment indeed from Carlos Sainz, considering his own
problems and the demise of his team mate now placing the entire role of
scoring points on his shoulders.

So, Calos Sainz went into the final day in a reasonably comfortable second
place, 14 seconds off the leader Marko Martin in his Ford Focus, but with a
comfortable 18 second lead over third placed Duval in another Focus. Things
could only get better and so it seemed Carlos putting a fast time on the
second stage of the day. Things went very differently on third stage of the
day though....

The shortest stage of the day saw three cars from three different
manufacturers finish within a tenth of a second of each other, a remarkable
result. Unfortunately, Citroën was not one of those car makers. Pushing
hard for another fastest time, Carlos did a multiple roll in the Xsara. But
the strength of the car and Carlos strength of will meant they lost just
one minute and 20 seconds and one place.

So at the finish, Carlos was the only non-Ford driver on the Podium,
earning points, but not enough to stop Ford taking over the lead in the
manufacturers' championship. Marko Martin's win in Mexico, along with
points scored in Sweden and Monte Carlo, means he now shares the driver's
Championship lead with Citroën's Sebastien Loeb.

So, with the World Rally Championship heading for New Zealand in the middle
of next month there is still very much everything to play for and no team
can say they've got a lock on the 2004 World Rally Championship.

(ends)

The 2004 Rally of Mexico - Final Results
1 Martin/Park Ford Focus 4h06'46"2 95.9 km/h
2 Duval/Prevot Ford Focus 4h07'28"7 + 00'42"5
3 Sainz/Marti Citroen Xsara 4h08'07"1 + 00'38"4
4 Solberg/Mills Subaru Impreza 4h10'00"9 + 01'53"8
5 Hirvonen/Lehtinen Subaru Impreza 4h10'22"4 + 00'21"5
6 Gronholm/Rautiainen Peugeot 307 4h10'44"6 + 00'22"2
7 Valimaki/Honkanen Hyundai Accent 4h18'03"1 + 07'18"5
8 Panizzi/Panizzi Mitsubishi Lancer 4h18'16"8 + 00'13"7
9 Warmbold/Price Ford Focus 4h20'46"6 + 02'29"8
10 Rovanpera/Pietilainen Peugeot 307 4h26'06"5 + 05'19"9

2004 World Rally Championship Drivers' standings
1. S. Loeb (F) 20; 2. M. Martin (EE) 20; 3. M. Gronholm (FIN) 16; 4. F.
Duval (B) 14; 5. P. Solberg (N) 13; 6. C. Sainz (SP) 10; 7 J. Tuohino
(FIN) 5; 8. F. Loix (B) 4; 9. M. Hirvonen (FIN) 4; 10 G. Panizzi (F) 4.

World Rally Manufacturers' Championship
1. Ford 40 points; 2. Citroen 30 points; 3. Peugeot 21 points; 4. Subaru 19
points; 5. Mitsubishi 5 points.
 
Lincoln will be happy won't he...

Bit dissappointing about the Pug result, but Gronholm was not happy with the car at all... and is looking forward to his new gearbox for NZ..

I wasn't able to find out why Solberg got a penalty, but if he hadn't got that.. he would won... 2 of the 4 first days legs.. all of the second days legs.. and 1 or 2 on the last day!! Unbelievable, and he didn't win!! Looks like the Imprezza WRC04 is quite good... especially for a first outting..
 
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read....and you will know

I know the article is long but it is a good read.....he4re's what you missed
Loeb took over
the lead when spectators pushed Petter Solberg's Subaru into the service
area, breaking the 'no outside help' rule and incurring Solberg a five
minute penalty.
Cheers
 
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