Full house of points for the Citroën Junior Team!

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, the leaders for 12 of the Rally of Turkey’s 23 special stages, have finished in fourth overall at the end of the event. Kimi Räikkönen and Kaj Lindström are fifth, their best-ever result with the C4 WRC. The Citroën Junior Team becomes the outfit to score the
most points at the end of round four of the FIA World Rally Championship.
The third day of the Rally of Turkey was shortened by two special stages this morning. Deniz 1 and Mudarli 1 were made impassable by heavy overnight rain and were cancelled by the event organisers.

The competition resumed in Ballica (SS20). Sébastien Ogier, who was deprived of the opportunity to fight for a win by a tyre that exploded when he was leading yesterday, was third-fastest, less than a second behind

Sébastien Loeb: “Unfortunately there’s not so much left for us to fight for,” he said. “Things are a bit different for us today. We’re going to continue at a good pace because it’s always useful to rack up the kilometres in order to gain more experience. But it’s clear that the motivation is not the same.”

After setting a final fastest time at the end of the rally, Sébastien finished fourth: “Generally I’m quite pleased. It’s almost perfect! We’ve been able to fight at the front for a large part of the event. We’re definitely on the right road. The car was perfect and the team has done a great job. Now I’m really
looking forward to getting to New Zealand.”

Kimi Räikkönen also continued making progress to finish fifth, his best result in world rallying. “I feel more and more confident with the Citroën C4 WRC,” he said. “I’m very happy with the pace that we are able to maintain without taking any risks. We are able to get closer now to the drivers who are in front of us, which is our key objective. The hard work we have done with the team is now paying off. I’m feeling more and more confident. We’ve got a few weeks now before our next rally but our goal remains unchanged: we will have to continue to improve.”

Thanks to the reliability of its two Citroën C4 WRCs and its crews, the Citroën Junior Team became the team that scored the most World Championship manufacturer points in Turkey, with a total of 27. The Citroën Junior Team reinforced its third position in the standings, behind two factory teams, after four rounds of the World Rally Championship.

“We’ve been through a rally with plenty of twists and turns,” concluded Benoit Nogier, the Citroën Junior Team manager. “Some of those things went our way, but we also had a stroke of bad luck with Sébastien’s puncture yesterday. This takes nothing away from his excellent performance. The
cars had no problems at all. Our Citroën C4 WRCs are reliable and our drivers have proved that they are extremely competitive. Kimi has driven his best rally since the start of the season. It wasn’t only a rally of attrition; he got past some of his rivals on pure pace and that is the proof that he is making progress. It’s very encouraging for the entire team. We now head to New Zealand with Sébastien Ogier, highlymotivated to score another good result!”