VICTORY AT RALLY MEXICO
16 March 2007 - Citroën UK Ltd

LOEB HEATS UP THE TITLE RACE

Citroën’s triple world rally champion, Sébastien Loeb, returned to his winning ways at the weekend with a dominant victory on the fourth round of the World Rally Championship in Mexico.

The win, which was his 30th WRC triumph alongside co-driver Daniel Elena, saw the Frenchman jump to second place in the Drivers standings, just 4 points shy of Marcus Gronholm.

Rally Mexico marked the maiden outing on gravel for the new Citroën C4 and, despite the punishing temperatures and rough surface, Loeb led from the start to finish 55.8 seconds ahead of the chasing pack. Teammate, Dani Sordo, claimed an equally impressive 4th place.

A triumphant Loeb commented afterwards: “For Daniel and me, this is our 30th WRC win together. That’s obviously nice but I’m especially pleased with our run here this weekend and what it promises for the upcoming rallies. There is good reason to be optimistic for the future.”

Victory was Loeb’s second consecutive win on the arduous Rally Mexico.

Final Leaderboard for Rally Mexico

1. S. Loeb/D. Elena (Citroën C4) 3 h 48 min 13,3 s
2. M. Gronholm/T. Rautiainen (Ford Focus) + 55,8 s
3. M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen (Ford Focus) + 1 min 27,7 s
4. D. Sordo/M. Martí (Citroën C4) + 1 min 43,7 s
5. C. Atkinson/G. McNeall (Subaru Impreza) + 2 min 24,1 s

FIA World Rally Championship standings after round 4 – Manufacturers*
1st. Ford - 58 pts; 2nd. Citroën - 43 pts; 3rd. Stobart - 19 pt; 4th. Subaru -19 pts; 5th. OMV Kronos Citroën – 17 pts

FIA World Rally Championship standings after round 4 – Drivers*
1st. M. Grönholm (FIN) - 32 pts; 2nd. S. Loeb (2006 World Champion) (F) - 28 pts; 3rd. M. Hirvonen (FIN) - 26pts; 4th. D. Sordo - 13 pts; 5th. H. Solberg - 11 pts; 6th. C. Atkinson (AUS) - 11 pts; 7th. P. Solberg, 8pts; 8th. D.Carlsson – 6 pts; 9th. JM. Latvala – 6 pts; 10th. T. Gardemeister – 5 pts; 11th. M. Stohl – 5 pts; 12th. G. Galli – 3 pts; 13th. J. Kopecky – 2 pts; 14th. M. Wilson – 1 pt

*All results subjectto FIA confirmation.

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