Category: WRC

We bring you the rather intriguing news that Mikko Hirvonen will be racing alongside Sebastien Loeb at the Citroën WRC team in 2012. Hirvonen leaves Ford after six years with a record of 14 wins and twice being runner up to Loeb in the championship (2009 and 2011).

Hirvonen switching camps isn’t the real story here; it’s the fact there was a drive available at all. Despite being just one year into a three year deal and winning five out of his team’s 10 rallies this year Sebastien Ogier has been shown the door.

Ogier won the JWRC title for Citroën in 2008 and has been seen as the heir to Loeb’s WRC throne. Team orders reared their head at Rally Germany when a fast-charging Ogier was told ease the pressure on Loeb who held the lead. Eventually Ogier had his way winning the event after Loeb’s chances suffered at the hands of a puncture. Afterwards Ogier expressed his dissatisfaction by stating, “At least there is some justice in the sport.”

It’s not clear where Ogier will be going in 2012 but we expect Volkswagen will take a keen interest and may choose to secure the French ace for their 2013 assault. Ford, obviously, looms as a possible destination for Ogier and you can bet he would love nothing more than to knock off Loeb and Citroën for the blue oval.

Citroën’s official press release can be read after the break.

In the end it was good fortune that handed Sebastien Loeb his eighth WRC title. Loeb was forced out of Wales Rally GB following a low-impact collision with a tourist on a non-competitive stage. Thankfully, for Loeb, his closest rival, Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen, had already retired from the event.

“It’s proof that a rally isn’t over till you’re back in the parc fermé!” said Loeb of the race-ending incident. “It’s a pity because I would have liked to have finished the battle with Jari-Matti. What happened is fairly ordinary: we were on a narrow road and we came upon a car on the top of a crest where there was no visibility. The Spanish driver had the wrong reflex and pulled in to the right and we collided!”

“So far we haven’t really had time to celebrate this title as we were completely involved in the rally. Again this morning we had to get up at 4.30 am to go and tackle the stages,” added Loeb. “Now we can celebrate it at last with the whole team. All the titles are important and memorable as they’re never put together in the same way. This season, the overall level was very high and we had to fight right down till the last rally.”

Citroën is making a fair bit out of Loeb overtaking Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world championships. Loeb followed suit, saying, “I’m proud to have become the most-titled racing driver, even if one shouldn’t really try and compare the different branches of the sport. I never thought I’d achieve this when I started my career!”

More after the break, including a short video and interview with Loeb at the scene of his accident.

A retirement for Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen at the Rally of Great Britain has handed Sebastien Loeb his eighth consecutive WRC title. The rally is still in progress, but Loeb can no longer be beaten for the crown.

“Mikko was going like a bat out of hell and we were scrapping for every tenth of a second. In SS7, I started flat out as I wanted to get back in front,” said Loeb at the end of Day 2.

“There was fog and the grip suited me a lot better. Mikko made a mistake and the situation has turned in our favour. If his retirement is confirmed it means that we’re world champions, and we can take it easy.”

We’ll have more from Citroën after the rally is finished.

[Source: Citroën WRC]

Citroën super star Sebastien Loeb won Rally Spain from Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen on the weekend and in doing so put himself back in the outright lead in the chase for the 2011 drivers’ world championship.

Despite an engine failure and subsequent DNF from Citroën driver Sebastien Ogier, Loeb’s victory was enough to secure a seventh manufacturers’ title for the French outfit. Failure in Spain was a double blow for Ogier who is now out of the title race with just one rally left in season 2011.

It was another solid outing for MINI with Dani Sordo finishing fourth and teammate Kris Meeke behind in fifth. You sense there’ll be a victory or two in store for MINI in 2012.

Loeb now holds a slender eight point lead over Hirvonen, despite the Frenchman winning five races so far this year to the the Finn’s two. There’s 25 points plus bonuses on offer for a win and the final race in Wales (10–13 November) shapes up as being a nail-biter.

Speaking after his win in Spain, Loeb said, “For the moment we’re celebrating Citroën’s seventh title! But the drivers’ crown is far from over. Mikko Hirvonen has done a good job by finishing second here and we know he’ll be competitive on the stages in Wales. We must finish in front of him. The best thing we could do would be to win. So our destiny is in our own hands!”

Citroën will be overjoyed that a Frenchman won the team’s home event on the weekend. But it was the other Sebastien standing atop the Rally France podium, not seven-time world champion Sebastien Loeb.

Sounding yet another warning shot to his established rivals was Dani Sordo at the wheel of his MINI. The Spaniard led the rally on Day 2 and finished the race in second, just 6.3 seconds behind Ogier.

Loeb retired on Day 1 with an engine failure. “There’s never a right time for something like this to hit us, but it’s the last rally in which I would have wanted it to happen,” he said. “I’m going to have to fight hard in the last two rallies of the season if I want to win my eighth world crown.”

It was Ogier’s fifth win of the year and he now has 193 points. His 26 points from Rally France closing the gap to Loeb to just three points in the drivers’ title race.

Speaking after the rally Ogier said, “It’s been a very long rally as I carried the responsibility for the whole team on my shoulders. I’m just happy to be able to relax. Obviously, this victory means a lot to me from a personal point of view. Five wins in a season is already a pretty good achievement. I’d like to thank the team which gave me a perfect car. Congratulations also to Dani Sordo; he drove really well all weekend and it wasn’t easy to beat him.”

Petter Solberg finished the event in third place, placing another Citroën on the podium. However, he has since been disqualified after scrutineers revealed his car was 4kg underweight. That moved Mikko Hirvonen into third place for the rally and equal first with Loeb in the championship race.

More from Citroën after the break.