CITROËN AND OGIER TAKE BRONZE IN WALES GB

Sébastien Ogier – Julien Ingrassia and Esapekka Lappi – Janne Ferm ended Rallye Deutschland a disappointing seventh and eighth overall, as both crews struggled throughout the event to deliver their full potential in the C3 WRC, the French pair also collecting two harsh punctures. A tough weekend that the Citroën Total World Rally Team nevertheless leaves in determined mood, aiming to bounce back at the next round in Turkey (12-15 September).

With a final day only 38.42 kilometers long, and traced on ES very well known to all, the game was announced complicated so that Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia could be back on the first two. Especially since the stage was amputated the ES Great Orme (4.74 km), conducive to deviations last year, and canceled this time for security reasons. The French were then trying to get through the many pitfalls of the day, before giving everything again in the Power Stage, to match their third place with four more points, thanks to a second time in this exercise.

This result is the eleventh podium of the Citroën Total World Rally Team in twelve rounds this season, their eighth staff also, and is worth to stay in second place in the championship, twenty-eight units of the first.

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were in the lead trio in the first real time of the rally, before making a particularly offensive second round of the second round and punctuated by two best times, confirming their intention to try to snag a sixth victory over these lands. So they concluded this opening step only 3”4 of the head. Decided to continue their assault on Saturday, on the longest race day of the weekend, which is deprived of mid-term assistance, the six-time champions of the world once again put a lot of heart to the work in a gasping fight to the second, but could not fully support the comparison with the other two title contenders. Hence their ranking at 17”3 of the first and 6”3 of the second this morning.

After a first real special approach cautiously, the time to appropriate the behavior of C3 WRC on such a greasy ground, Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm immediately increased the pace with a 4th time at 4”0 in Penmachno’s next SS ( 16.19 km). A third time at 1’0 in ES 5 Aberhirnant (10.26 km) even earned them to join the mid-first day just 7”8 of the podium. But they were unfortunately the expense of one of the many changes in grip of the course, overestimating the level of grip on a braking from the start of the second loop and had momentarily stay there. They left for Rally 2 on Saturday and focused on perfecting their knowledge of the subtleties of the event and what it means to start first on these greasy paths, sometimes flooded with puddles of water.