Australia: Ogier starts well

Sébastien Ogier starts the Rally from Australia on a roll. In the streets of downtown Murwillumbah, on a 2,55 km route, drivers were offered two Super Special Stages to start the tenth round of the World Rally Championship. During each of the two runs, the Citroën Junior Team driver took his Citroën C4 to the front, winning the scratch time each time.

After 5,10 km of Rally, Sébastien Ogier is ahead of Henning Solberg (Ford Focus RS WRC 08) of 3??5 and Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4) from 4??3. The latter, recovering after having scored 23 points less than Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus RS WRC 09) during the last four events, is 3??8 ahead of his rival with a view to the title of World Champion.

At the end of the two Super Specials, Sébastien Ogier shared his good feelings on the urban route of Murwillumbah. “ It was slippery but quite fun. It's a good start and I feel confident about this Rally. It's a new test for everyone and I hope we can get a good result here. » No incidents were reported among the leading drivers. Only Matthew Wilson (Ford Focus RS WRC 08) lost a few seconds due to a malfunction in his start control system. Conrad Rautenbach (Citroën C4) was slowed down by the malfunction of his headlights.

This Friday, thirteen special stages are on the program for the drivers in the WRC field, for a total of 101,69 km.