Small problem for Citroën in the shakedown

Three weeks after leaving the snow-bound Swedish roads, the Citroën C4 WRCs are back on gravel routes. In the shakedown this morning, the five Citroën C4 WRCs set the quickest times: Petter Solberg just in front of Dani Sordo, Sébastien Ogier, Sébastien Loeb and Kimi Raïkkönen.

The shakedown in the San Juan de Otates region, on the same route as in 2008, enabled the crews to take part in a final practice session before the start of the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Several crews found that fording streams was a tricky challenge. The Citroën Total World Rally Team and the Citroën Junior Team took advantage of this session to prepare their C4 WRCs for this specific aspect of the Mexican event.

Dani Sordo and Marc Marti ran into a small problem on their third passage: “We punctured the radiator when crossing the ford. We decided to stop so as not to take the slightest risk.” When the car got back to Poliforum de Leó where the service park is located, the Citroën Racing engineers’ diagnosis confirmed that the no.4 C4 WRC’s engine had suffered no damage.

“We had enough time to run through our test programme,” added Dani. “I’ve got a good feeling on this surface. I like the stages very much and I feel at home. We’ll have the advantage of running on a cleaner road than the first three tomorrow.”

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena covered the shakedown four times: “We used two different spring stiffness settings to compare the car’s handling,” said the three-time winner of the event. “This shakedown is very useful as testing is forbidden in Mexico. My overall feeling’s pretty good even if there was very little grip this morning.”

Citroën Junior Team driver Sébastien Ogier finished second-quickest. “We went through it five times. First time round it was very slippery on a road that really needed sweeping. We hope to be on the pace of the front-runners by taking advantage of our starting position on the first day.”

Kimi Räikkönen used this session to get to grips with the Citroën C4 WRC on gravel: “The gap between us and the quickest is the same as in the Swedish Rally. It’s encouraging as we haven’t run on gravel in the Citroën C4 WRC before coming here. We made progress each time through. The number of kilometres I’ve covered doesn’t seem to have any effect on my back problems so I’m not worried about the rest of the rally.”