WRC – Hirvonen confident after the Rallye Vosgien

Before contesting the Rally from France-Alsace from October 4 to 7, several crews from WRC are used to entering the Rallye Vosgien which offers similar conditions for establishing full-scale test sessions. The event started with two night stages in the rain preceding nine other stages. In this exercise, Mikko Hirvonen shone at the wheel of a Citroën DS3 WRC, winning nine stage wins while Mads Ostberg took the other two with his Ford Fiesta RS WRC even though the Norwegian finished more than 22 seconds behind the winner. The podium was completed by the DS3 WRC of Sébastien Chardonnet who is taking his first steps behind the wheel of a WRC. Stéphane Consani occupied the provisional podium before going off the road with his Mini JCW WRC at the start of the second stage.

Mikko Hirvonen is delighted with his weekend which gives him confidence before going to fight on the land of his teammate Sébastien Loeb. “We are really very satisfied with our Vosges weekend”, commented the Finn at the finish of the event. “It is true that the sectors on Friday evening put us straight into the mix with terrible weather, but we competed in the three stages of this race in very different situations which allowed us to gain good experience of the terrain. In short, we have achieved our objectives and we must not forget that this is also our first victory with the Citroën DS3 WRC! It will now be a question of applying this teaching on the route of the Alsatian round which will be contested in Strasbourg in two weeks. »