Matton confirms Loeb exit

Citroen team principal Yves Matton has confirmed that Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena have retired from Vodafone Rally de Portugal following their crash on the third stage of round four of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia.

Loeb was third overall after two stages only to hit trouble on the very next run, rolling and inflicting substantial damage to his Citroen DS3 WRC.

“They went off on a situation when the road turned on the top [on a crest], the road turned to the right and Sebastien turned to the left,” said Matton. “The pace note was good, but he didn’t follow the indication, just before the top the road was going a little bit to the left and we think he was looking more to the road and he didn’t follow the note. Sebastien said the impact was not heavy. We don’t know how many times the car rolled, but enough to make sure it won’t start tomorrow.”

Matton continued: “The cage was damaged on the top. Sometimes this can happen if the first roll is heavy, but we don’t know. Anyway, the cage is bent. This can happen, it’s the rally. We still have one car and we try to take maximum points with Mikko [Hirvonen] and try to be leading at the end of the rally.”