WRC

Rally Australia: Citroen WRT final leg summary

Victory for Loeb, Elena and Citroen 'down under' Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena came through this weekend's incredibly thrilling Rally Australia to notch up the 53rd world class win of their career. The result also takes the Citroen C4 WRC pair ...

Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:15 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Victory for Loeb, Elena and Citroen 'down under'

Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena came through this weekend's incredibly thrilling Rally Australia to notch up the 53rd world class win of their career. The result also takes the Citroen C4 WRC pair to within a single point of the provisional lead in the 2009 Drivers' World Championship standings. Meanwhile, Dani Sordo and Marc Marti's superb third place has helped Citroen extend its advantage at the top of the Manufacturers' points table.

With just one tenth of a second covering Dani Sordo, Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen going into the final day of the 2009 Rally Australia, Sunday's action was always going to be exceptionally close. The last leg was also the longest of the weekend in terms of competitive action, with a programme of two loops of five stages in the Kyogle region, split by a 15-minute remote service break.

Sebastien Loeb eased back ahead thanks to his fastest time on the day's opening test (SS26). Mikko Hirvonen responded with the best performance on SS28, but that didn't prevent the four-time World Champion from gradually extending his lead throughout the morning. By the time crews checked into the short service halt in Kyogle, the cushion was up to 11 seconds: "The gap isn't big enough yet for me to be able to lift. Despite the fact that he is running first on the road, Mikko is still going extremely quickly, and I don't think he has any intention of throwing in the towel. We went well this morning and my C4 WRC feels nicely balanced on these stages. The situation is looking promising for us, but I don't intend to take my eye off the ball."

A fastest time for Dani Sordo on SS27 provided further evidence of the Spaniard's speed in Australia, and he completed the first loop fighting for second spot, just 3.8 seconds adrift of Hirvonen: "I dropped a little time by pushing too hard, which led to a tendency for my car to oversteer. Our aim is to try to catch Mikko, but clawing back four seconds this afternoon won't be easy. He is going very well and I mustn't forget the prospect of a good Manufacturers' points haul for Citroen."

The afternoon's run saw Sebastien Loeb maintain the same sort of pace to bag a further two fastest times, and it was only on the final stage which was broadcast live on TV that he was truly able to control from in front. The Frenchman was clearly delighted with his performance at the finish: "Winning is always nice, but today's victory has a special taste to it because it's our first since last April! This rally turned out to be long and tough. The variety of the stages and the speed of our rivals kept us on our toes from start to finish. This result is particularly important in terms of the championship. It has brought us back to within just one point of Mikko and we will be looking to regain the lead in Spain."

A further fastest time on SS32 enabled Dani Sordo to figure briefly in second place before eventually reaching the finish in third spot: "Mikko was quite simply faster than me today. That said, I am absolutely thrilled to have finished on the podium here in Australia. I was in the thick of the scrap for first place from the beginning of Day 1 all the way to the end, and the Manufacturers' points we've scored mean that Citroen could potentially wrap up the title in Spain."

-credit: citroen

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Rally Australia: Stobart M-Sport final leg summary

Next article Rally Australia: Citroen statment after penalties

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Franco Morbidelli on securing most coveted WSBK ride: 'Clearly Ducati has some trust in me'

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Japanese GP

8 min

Franco Morbidelli on securing most coveted WSBK ride: 'Clearly Ducati has some trust in me'

"Not allowed, not made possible": Was BMW denied its title chance?

DTM

DTM DTM

Hockenheim

57 min

"Not allowed, not made possible": Was BMW denied its title chance?

Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 1 h

Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut

Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

2 h

Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"

Feature

Discover prime content

A story of persistence as Elfyn Evans' long wait for WRC glory finally ends

WRC

Rally Italy

By Tom Howard

A story of persistence as Elfyn Evans' long wait for WRC glory finally ends

How Elfyn Evans made WRC history in Hollywood blockbuster Sardinia decider

WRC

Rally Italy

By Tom Howard

How Elfyn Evans made WRC history in Hollywood blockbuster Sardinia decider

What a revival of the World Rally Championship could look like

WRC

By Tom Howard

What a revival of the World Rally Championship could look like

How Oliver Solberg lit up WRC title fight in Chile

WRC

Rally Chile

By Tom Howard

How Oliver Solberg lit up WRC title fight in Chile

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts