Citroën and Loeb Win World Rally Championship

Sebastién Loeb has become the World Rally Champion following his second place classification in this weekend’s Tour de Course, the French Rally. The win makes him the 10th driver in the sport’s history to take the title on Michelin tyres. The result was also good news for Citroën, which runs Xsara WRC cars for both Loeb and team mate Carlos Sainz, has retained its title as world manufacturer champions.

“Winning the championship as a French driver with a French team on home soil is as good as it gets,” commented Mr Loeb. “To say I’m world champion is very nice. It was tough to keep my focus, but my concentration was okay until five kilometers from the end of the last stage. I don’t know whether I could have caught the Fords this weekend but I started the rally with the goal of winning the title so that was always in my mind. Everyone in the team has worked very hard for this championship. ”

Michelin’s partners dominated the top-end of the leader board from start to finish with winner Markko Märtin (Ford-Michelin) outpacing the best-placed runner on rival tyres by close to one second per kilometre by the end of day two. Carlos Sainz finished third, with former champion Marcus Gronholm taking fourth spot for Peugeot and Petter Solberg, Subaru, finishing fifth.

“Although our relationship goes back a long way, our partnership with Citroën in the WRC is in reality quite recent but it didn’t take long for it to begin obtaining top results. After our manufacturers’ title together in 2003, our clear-cut manufacturers’ and drivers’ double this year confirms that our association has truly come of age and that it promises to be successful for a long time to come,” commented Frédéric Henry-Biabaud, deputy director of Michelin Competition.

Claude Satinet, sporting director of Automobiles Citroën, congratulated the team: “Citroën Sport achieved their objectives, even before the end of the season. That is very satisfying. As well as the pure result, we must mention the way it was achieved. The team understood during 2003, during its first full Championship, that it was important not to drop any points along the way. Thanks to excellent organization and perseverance, they put in a perfect performance in 2004, of which the race in Corsica is another example.”