WRC
Rally Deutschland: Citroen final leg summary
A gold medal performance from Citroen in Germany! The final day of the 2008 Rallye Deutschland, round 10 of this year's World Rally Championship, produced a resounding one-two finish for the C4 WRCs of Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani ...
Published: Aug 18, 2008, 12:44 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
A gold medal performance from Citroen in Germany!
The final day of the 2008 Rallye Deutschland, round 10 of this year's World Rally Championship, produced a resounding one-two finish for the C4 WRCs of Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Marti. In addition to taking Citroen and Sebastien Loeb clear at the top of their respective points tables, the result of this all-asphalt fixture, which has always been happy hunting ground for the French squad, extends the team's unbeaten record in Germany to eight wins, including that of Philippe Bugalski/Jean Paul Chiaroni with their Xsara WRC in 2001. It is also Citroen's seventh victory this season and its 49th WRC success in total, which makes it the third most successful carmaker in the history of world class rallying.
The short last leg of this year's event featured just 84.97km of stages divided into two identical loops of two stages, plus the super-special through the streets of host town Trier which rounded off the day. The Citroen pair's 100% stage-winning record over the first two days (13 for Seb, and one for Dani) meant they had enough breathing space to be able to control from in front. Meanwhile, although the Rallye Deutschland is famed for its fickle weather, this year's visit ended as it had started in bright sunshine and the two Citroen C4 WRC crews were able to slip into a fast but safe pace all the way to the finish.
"A fortnight ago, in Finland, we were the outsiders but we managed to come out on top," recalls Olivier Quesnel. "Here, on the contrary, everybody saw us as favourites and that put us under a certain amount of pressure. I am proud to say, however, that everyone at Citroen Sport rose superbly to the occasion and played their part in securing our first one-two finish of the year as the championship enters its final phase. That's an encouraging result for the battles ahead. Sebastien and Daniel produced an impeccable run, while Dani and Marc put in a solid performance to claim second overall and bring us more valuable points. Our cars and crews have a strong record on the Rallye Deutschland and another outstanding performance this time round has taken us to the top of the Manufacturers' championship. Sebastien has moved ahead in the Drivers' standings, too, so it's been an excellent weekend on all fronts. That said, we can't afford to just sit back and relax now, and we'll all be back at work tomorrow because we've got a busy few months ahead of us..."
The same sense of a job well done predominated in the cockpit of the C4 of the defending World Champions who today collected their seventh straight win in Trier, taking their career total to 43 world class wins to establish two new records. "After beating our main rival on his home event, we had no intention of letting anybody else take victory in Germany," smiled Sebastien Loeb. "Our C4 WRC handled perfectly impeccably from start to finish and we got our tyre calls right every time, switching from the Pirelli 'Soft' and 'Hard' options as a function of the conditions. I had an excellent feeling with my car over all the different types of terrain we encountered here and that meant we were able to push hard from the word go and then consolidate our position. It's fantastic to have won here again in Trier where French spectators always turn out in big numbers. It's also a positive result for us in the Drivers' championship because it means we have recovered the lead, so we have plenty of reasons to be delighted with our weekend!"
"I am very pleased to have finished second," concluded Dani Sordo. "The Rallye Deutschland isn't my favourite asphalt event because its format doesn't let you settle into a real rhythm, but it was very nice to be back on sealed surface stages. We were a bit unsure about our set-up to begin with but the work of the Citroen technical team gave us a perfect car for Saturday morning. From that moment on, we were able to up our pace and I had tremendous fun driving and running in second position. Our result gives Citroen a one- two finish and our overall points haul takes us to the top of the Manufacturers' standings, so that's clearly a result! I've moved up one place in the Drivers' points table, too, and we must now knuckle down to try to repeat the same sort of performance."
-credit: citroen-wrc.com
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
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rally Deutschland: BP-Ford final leg summary
Next article JWRC: O'Mahony and Higgins Rally Deutschland summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Sébastien Loeb
Sebastien Loeb tests new Project Rally One 2027 WRC car
WRC
WRC
Rally Italy
Sebastien Loeb tests new Project Rally One 2027 WRC car
Sebastien Loeb to make traditional stage rallying return
WRC
WRC
Sebastien Loeb to make traditional stage rallying return
Sebastien Loeb after 13 Dakar punctures: Cars now extremely robust, tyres the weak link
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Sebastien Loeb after 13 Dakar punctures: Cars now extremely robust, tyres the weak link
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
WRC
WRC
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
Latest news
Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
5 h
Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season
Tyler Reddick really needed NASCAR Phoenix win for several reasons
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
5 h
Tyler Reddick really needed NASCAR Phoenix win for several reasons
Bubba Wallace laments mistake after heartbreaking Phoenix loss
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
6 h
Bubba Wallace laments mistake after heartbreaking Phoenix loss
NASCAR is getting the championship finish it has pursued since 1992
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
6 h
NASCAR is getting the championship finish it has pursued since 1992
Feature
Discover prime content
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
Subscribe