WRC 2011: Citroen Won The Seventh Consecutive Victory In Argentina

After an extremely contentious race to finish, Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena won the Rally for the sixth time. Despite a trip in the background on the longest test of the rally, Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia finished 3rd.

With special gravel and asphalt, the first day of Rally Argentina was one full of incident Total Citroen team. After 160 km of special stages, Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were ranked 3, less than 30 seconds behind the leader. Even if they won two special stages, Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena completed the first day than in 5th place after a one minute penalty.

In contrast, the second day was dominated by Citroen Total crews. Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were installed at the helm, with an advance of more than 40 seconds to the next crew, and Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena climbed to 3rd place, just four seconds behind in second position crew .

Last day of Rally Argentina was quite unusual. For the first test, over 48 kilometers long, the pilots woke up at 5 am for a brief stop in the park of Villa Carlos Paz service then went to Ascochinga, special test for the longest this season. Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, who left home early to have started cautiously trying to preserve the lead of 43.7 seconds. However the last kilometers, Citroen's WRC DS3 out and capsized in the background. "It was a stupid mistake," admitted Ogier end. "All I had to do was to get to the finish and win. We noted in the apex of that turn and ended up with one out in the background. I could go on but the car was damaged. In addition, we remained without steering servo. The windshield was broken and we ran out of rear spoiler. "

Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, are in third place, they realized that the chances of passing are pretty small Mikko Hirvonen: "It was foggy and plenty of moisture. Under these conditions there was no problem to clean up one way. The first laps were not good at all. We had to go the limit to win a position, "said Loeb, who eventually managed to pass the second position.

The last three special stages, with a total length of about ten kilometers, Ogier sought to defend his position, but before the start of the Power Stage, special last rally had missed 3.3 seconds ahead of Loeb, and 5 7 seconds to Hirvonen. "It was very hard. The last test I felt I could no longer take the wheel. Without steering servo drive has been incredibly difficult. It was impossible to approach the corners as I wanted, "said Sebastien Ogier. While Loeb and Hirvonen took advantage of his problems, Ogier still managed to stay on the podium. "For the team is not that bad. We lost many points in the Constructors. This is not a good result in the fight for the title pilots. I am very disappointed, "he said Ogier.

Loeb went on "attack mode" until the end and took the lead. Finally won with an advance of 2.4 seconds from Hirvonen. "After Friday's penalizing me not thinking about victory. I went to the limit to catch up on the pilots in front of us and to move Hirvonen. Once again we had a very tight final. It appears that Argentina is my favorite hunting ground, "said Loeb, who congratulated the team and his colleague. "I know what he feels now that I had such errors in their careers. It is frustrating and disappointing, but such mistakes can happen. He still managed to finish the race and gathered important points for the team, "added the reigning world champion.

Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson, also on a DS3 Citroen WRC Rally Argentina finished in 4th place. World champion Petter Solberg competed for the 2003 World Rally Team, Citroen and the car is prepared by Racing Technologies.

The next challenge for pilots and model DS3 Citroen WRC Rally of Greece is scheduled between 16 to 19 June 2011.

Rally Results (stage 6 to 13) *

1 S. Loeb / D. Elena Citroen WRC 4h03m 56.9s DS3
2 M. Hirvonen / J. Lehtinen - Ford Focus RS WRC +2.4 s
3 S Ogier / J Ingrassia - Citroën WRC +7.3 s DS3
4 P. Solberg / C. Patterson - Citroën WRC +32.6 s DS3
5 M Ostberg / J. Andersson - Ford Fiesta RS WRC 5 m 16.8s
6 F. Villagra / J Perez Companc - Ford Focus RS WRC 6 m 48.5s
7 JM. Latvala / M. Anttila - Ford Focus RS WRC 11 m 34.5s
8 M. Wilson / S. Martin - Ford Focus RS WRC 13 m .32.7 s
9 H. Paddon / J. Kennard - Subaru Impreza 25 m 43.8s
10 P. Flodin / M. Andersson - Subaru Impreza 33. M 34.1s

Rankings - PILOT after Argentina (6th round of 13) *

1. Sebastien Loeb p 126, 2. Mikko Hirvonen p 113, 3. Sebastien Ogier 96 p, 4. Jari-Matti Latvala 74 p, 5. Petter Solberg 61 p, 6. Mads Ostberg 48 p, 7. Matthew Wilson 28 p, 8. Frederico Villagra 20 p, 9. Kimi Raikkonen 18 p, 10. Henning Solberg 10 p, 11. Dani Sordo 8 p, 12. Juho Hannien 8 p, 13. Tanaka Ott 7 p, 14. PG Andersson 6 p, 15. Martin Prokop 6 p.

Rankings - construction after Argentina (6th round of 13) *

1. Citroen Total World Rally Team 207 p, 2. Ford Abu Dhabi 174 p, 3. Stobart M-Sport Ford 75 p, 4. WRT Petter Solberg 49 p, 5. P Munch's Ford WRT 32 6. Ice Racing 1 26 p, 7. Team Abu Dhabi 19 p, 8. Power Tools FERM 10 p, 9. Monster WRT 6 p, 10. Brazil World Rally Team 1p.

* Subject to approval by the FIA results.