Sordo will be allowed to fight for WRC wins

Dani Sordo’s frustration at failing to beat Citroen team leader Sebastien Loeb won’t last forever.

That’s according to Citroen Racing director Olivier Quesnel, who says the Spaniard will be allowed to take the fight to Loeb just as soon as the dominant French driver has claimed his seventh world crown and Citroen its sixth manufacturers’ prize.

Sordo has yet to win a world championship rally despite proving a match to Loeb on a handful of events in the past, most notable on home soil in Spain, which hosts the penultimate round of the WRC in late October.

After seven rounds Loeb is 51 points clear at the top of the drivers’ standings with Citroen 47 points in front of Ford.

“I hope to see Seb be world champion the quickest possible and then I will say to all my drivers ‘do what you like and we will see’,” said Quesnel. “I think that will be good for everybody, especially for Dani to be free [to fight] in Spain. But apart from Seb, we also need the manufacturers’ title.”

Sordo, the 2005 Junior world champion in a works-supported Citroen C2, joined the French manufacturers’ WRC squad in 2007 and has remained with team ever since under Loeb’s shadow. On Rally Bulgaria recently, Sordo said he could not offer any explanation why Loeb had beaten him by almost 30 seconds on the asphalt event, Sordo’s favoured surface.

But Quesnel has extended his backing to Sordo and says the Spaniard can go faster.
“Of course Dani has not been driving at full pace,” said Quesnel. “Everybody wants to be first in the Citroen team but nobody forgets why we are there and the objective of two titles. If they don’t forget then they can enjoy themselves and hopefully soon.”