Serial problems at Citroën

After Sébastien Ogier earlier in the afternoon, arrested after tearing off half of his rear end when hitting a barrier, Sébastien Loeb, Dani Sordo and Conrad Rautenbach experienced problems in Fiorentini, the eleventh special stage of the Sardinia Rally.

Published on 23/05/2009 à 16:58

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Four of the five Citroën C4s WRC experienced problems this early afternoon in Sardinia. If the two Citroën Total WRT cars were able to continue, the Citroën C4 WRCs of Sébastien Ogier and Conrad Rautenbach are parked.

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena punctured in SS11, achieving the feat of restarting losing only 75 seconds after changing a route. The World Champions now occupy fourth place, 1:33:1 behind leader Jari-Matti Latvala and 29:9 behind Petter Solberg in third.

Victim of a turbo problem, Dani Sordo lost more than four minutes in this same time. The Spaniard now occupies eighth position behind Matthew Wilson.

After Sébastien Ogier in the first stage of the loop, Conrad Rautenbach also had to stop after SS11. The Zimbabwean had already lost more than two minutes in Fiorentini by breaking a shock absorber, apparently the same symptoms as those which affected Sébastien Ogier yesterday.

Jari-Matti Latvala remains at the top of the rally with a 19??2 lead over Mikko Hirvonen. Petter Solberg now occupies third position, more than a minute ahead of Sébastien Loeb. Evgeny Novikov is fifth ahead of Mads Ostberg, Matthew Wilson and Dani Sordo.