Citroën is aiming for a sixth victory on the trot!

In 2005 and 2009, Citroën Racing achieved the amazing feat of scoring six victories on the trot in the FIA World Rally Championship. In Greece, Sébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena and Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia will be aiming to equal this record with the Citroën DS3 WRC. A win in Greece will help the Citroën World Rally Team to consolidate its position as leader in both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ championships.

The Acropolis Rally, one of the traditional events in the FIA World Rally Championship, is back on the calendar this season. In its current layout the Greek Rally is no longer the formidable challenge it was in the past. It still has the toughest car breaking sections of the whole season, and any driver who plays a percentage game has little hope of winning it.

“There’s absolutely no reason why we should change our approach,” insists Sébastien Loeb who has just scored his sixty-fifth win in Argentina. “We’ve got a small lead in the championship. But thirteen points isn’t much of a cushion. In Greece, like everywhere else, we’re going to push hard right from the start as each second counts.”

Since the beginning of the season four of the six rallies have ended with under twelve seconds between first and second: “Even if we’ve scored five consecutive victories on gravel, the gaps are very small. You have to go pedal to the metal from the green light!”

The Acropolis is now more of a typical sprint event than in the past, but it’s still THE car breaking event of the season: “The roads are very tough on both the cars and drivers. The heat also adds to the trying conditions. In certain portions, you have to avoid stones to spare the car and tyres. Sometimes you’re thrown around in the cockpit like a ping-pong ball!”

“You have to be very intelligent,” adds his team-mate Sébastien Ogier, who is currently lying third in the drivers’ classification. “The cars, the tyres and the crews all suffer in Greece. You have to watch out for the mechanical components even if the DS3 WRC has been reliable and robust since the start of the season. Each rally is a new test.”

In 2009, on his only outing in Greece, Ogier put on a stunning performance finishing second in a world championship event in only his eighth drive in a WRC car: “It was my first podium at top level. It’s a great memory and I can’t wait to be back. We’re more motivated than ever to get out there and win and forget what happened at the end of Rally Argentina.”

The Acropolis Rally will kick off on Thursday 16th June with a starting ceremony at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens. The race proper will get under way on Friday morning. The route consists of eighteen stages on either side of the Corinth canal including a night one on Saturday evening. The Power Stage, shown live on TV, will be broadcast on Sunday 19th June at 14h11 (GMT +3).