There's smug satisfaction and then there's smug satisfaction. And the folks over at Citroen Sport are enjoying some serious smug satisfaction after taking a brilliant 1-2 finish in the Monte Carlo Rally. Taking first AND second is enough to make any team happy, but to compound that, this was the first race for Citroen's factory rally team since returning to the World Rally Championship, and the first race for their shiny new baby, the Citroen C4 WRC.
First place was taken by three-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb and his co-pilot Daniel Elena. To make the victory even sweeter, Loeb was fresh back at the wheel after recovering from a broken arm. Claiming the checkered flag at Monte Carlo set a new record for Loeb as his 29th career rally win. This was also the fourth time Loeb won in Monte Carlo, tying the record shared by rally legends Sandro Munari, Walter Rohrl and Tommi Makinen.
The second Citroen factory team driven by Dani Sordo took second place behind Loeb and ahead of Marcos Gronholm's Ford Focus. Not a bad day for Citroen and for Loeb, who are off to a great start to claim another championship.
[Source: Citroen]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mikomi @ Jan 25th 2007 8:16AM
I watched the races, I think Loeb never gave up the lead since stage 1. But the C4s dominated the charts, four of them were constantly in the top 6 in each stage. It's impressive that they carried over the same engine from the Xara, which shows all the changes they made to the rest of the vehicle really showed the re-engineering really paid off.
Owain Ozymandias Buck @ Jan 25th 2007 8:33AM
Dang! That team is really something else. Loeb's like a sideways Michael Jordan.
I'm really a Ford man, but got to give him props. Four time champ?
philly.c @ Jan 25th 2007 4:25PM
Ahh yes, gotta love the spoiler in the headline. Now that there is no broadcast in the US, most of us don't get to watch the event until at least a week after. Would be nice to not already know the outcome.
chris @ Jan 25th 2007 5:08PM
How long go you expect them to wait before posting about this philly.c? It's already been like 3-4 days since the event finished.
Will @ Jan 25th 2007 5:58PM
How do Americans watch WRC this year?
philly.c @ Jan 26th 2007 11:12AM
Well, considering most rips from BBC aren't fully available until a week later, I have to imagine the average wait time for American's is at least 7+ days. I'm not saying they shouldn't post about it...I'm just saying a headline without the winner would be nice, or without a race spoiler in general in the headline. Look at comments from this post: http://www.autoblog.com/2005/01/24/reigning-champ-wins-first-wrc-event-of-2005/
from 2005. And this was when Speed actually broadcasted it. I'd have no problem scanning Autoblog and seeing something about WRC and skipping it until I've seen the race. Hard to avoid this headline when scanning.
James @ Jan 28th 2007 1:06PM
I agree about the spoiler warnings. I watch the "sterile" version on wrc.com Basically it's stage times, radio coverage, and the occasional end of day video clip.
It's no surprise that the C4 is so dominant. Citroen have been developing the car for well over 2 years. If you read any of the interviews with rivals last year, they all expected it to be as good (if not better) than the Xsara.