Citroen, Loeb and Sordo Gunning For More Titles in 2010

SLOUGH, UNITED KINGDOM – February 8, 2010: The Citroen Total World Rally Team will start Rally Sweden (11th-14th February), the first round of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship, with their motivation at an all-time high. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena will be gunning for a seventh consecutive title, while Dani Sordo and Marc Marti will be the key men in Citroën’s conquest of a sixth crown in the Manufacturers’ World Championship.

The Rally of Sweden, run around Karlstad in the Hagfors region, marks the return of the FIA World Rally Championship that kicks off after a three month break.

Despite the fact that Sébastien Loeb is six-times world champion, scored his first victory on a surface other than asphalt in Sweden back in 2004 and won in Norway last year, he doesn’t feel that he is the favourite for the opening round. “I like starting the season with this rally, but it looks like the conditions are going to be very difficult. You just have to stay on the road, which isn’t all that easy when I think back to the 2008 rally. My only aim is to rack up another world title, but the way last season panned out shows that you can’t count your chickens before they’re hatched!”

Dani Sordo’s season began a few weeks ago with success in the Arctic Lapland Rally, the opening round of the Finnish Championship. Sordo comments, “It was a great way of boosting my confidence on this surface. Even though I didn’t really have any rivals there’s nothing like competition to get you back into the right rhythm and feel the reflexes coming back. Unlike a test session where we use the same route so we know it by heart, each special was a new challenge for me and I had to analyse the behaviour of the C4 WRC. The route was very similar to that of Rally Sweden so I feel absolutely ready.”

Dani’s main aim hasn’t changed in relation to the previous seasons, which is a crucial factor in the conquest of the Manufacturers’ title. “You have to be quick, consistent and score the maximum number of points in each rally. That’ll still be the case in 2010, but I want to push even harder. I’m really determined to win my first WRC rally this year. I know I can do it, and whether it comes in one of the asphalt rounds or the gravel events that I like very much such as Mexico, New Zealand or Portugal, it doesn’t make any difference.”

Olivier Quesnel, the Citroën Racing Team Principal comments, “You don’t change a winning team so we’re tackling 2010 with the same crew as the previous seasons. The final year of the World Rally Cars looks like being a great one for the World Championship - and for Citroën - which has a real dream team. The drivers of the five C4 WRCs entered this season have all been word champions in motor racing: namely, Sébastien Loeb, Dani Sordo, Sébastien Ogier, Kimi Raďkkönen, and Petter Solberg with his own team. It is difficult to do much better!”