Rally Deutschland: three questions to Sébastien Ogier

Has second place at the end of this year’s World Rally Championship become an objective for you?

“We’re going to try and hang onto this second place. It would be a great result if we finished runner-up in the World Rally Championship. So far we’re off to a good start. There are several asphalt rallies ahead of us where we should hopefully be able to stay in front of Jari-Matti Latvala, who is currently behind us in the championship classification.”

This will be your first Rallye Deutschland in a WRC car, while there are other drivers who already have seven starts under their belts…

“We know that it’s going to be quite a lot more difficult than the rallies we have done recently. Our objective remains to acquire experience while staying humble. This is an event that we do not know very well, as we have only done it once in a C2 Super 1600. On that occasion it went well, as we won the Junior classification. But in a WRC car, things will be completely different. Our goal is to beat the Fords at least and to come as close as we can to the best…”

At the end of this season, you’re splitting your time between the Citroën Total World Rally Team on gravel and the Citroën Junior Team on asphalt. Is it tricky switching from one team to another?

“Citroën is like a big family, so the Citroën Junior Team and the Citroën Total World Rally Team are quite close. In Finland, which was my debut in the factory team, everything went extremely well. But it will be very easy to work with my Citroën Junior Team colleagues again. I’m not worried about it at all!”