Shakedown – Loeb, Sordo, and Citroen apply the pressure

It was undoubtedly one of the key mental meetings not to be missed for the two championship protagonists during the Shakedown. And even though Gronholm is not far behind, it was Loeb and Citroën who proved to be the fastest. The duel is now underway.

This new 3.90-kilometer test session highlights the Citroën C4 WRCs of Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo. Under the sun, the championship leader only made two runs, both of which he was satisfied with:

« It was a very good introduction. Under the trees, the grip was variable, transitioning from very muddy sections to others that were much cleaner and stonier. »

Loeb also takes the opportunity to remind everyone of his objective and put pressure on his Finnish rival: « Our goal in this event is to clinch the title. If Marcus Grönholm wins, we need to score four points, which means finishing in fifth place. It is important to finish the rally. Therefore, we didn’t want to overstrain our C4 WRC. After our two runs in the early morning, I saw that everything was fine with the car, and our shakedown ended. »

More consistent, Dani Sordo is in second place at 0”1 just ahead of Marcus Grönholm. Petter Solberg, Jari-Matti Latvala, Henning Solberg, and Chris Atkinson are within the same second.

Andreas Mikkelsen completes the top 8 in his first outing with the Ford Focus WRC version 2008. Tenth, Manfred Stohl completed five runs, more than any other driver.

Sébastien Lindohlm, whose goal is to improve the performance of the Suzuki RX4, which will participate in the 2008 WRC championship, finishes several loops in 18th position, more than 12 seconds behind.

Shakedown – Result – Rally of Great Britain

Chronos provided by the WRC