All four Citroën C4 WRCs ready for the off!
Today’s pre-Rally de Portugal shakedown gave Citroën’s crews a chance to make final fine-tuning adjustments to the set-ups of their respective C4 WRCs. Evgeny Novikov was accredited with the fastest time in the Citroën camp, just ahead of Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo.

This morning’s conditions were perfect as crews headed south of Loulé for the 5.5km test stage. Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo both reported a preference for a relatively soft set-up for the Portuguese round which kicks off with this afternoon’s super-special.

"Everything went well," commented Sébastien. "Two runs sufficed to check that everything was OK with the car. The test stage was nice, but we will be running first on the road tomorrow, so I think we can expect a fair amount of ’road sweeping’. My tactics will be the same as ever: I will push hard straight away and try to open up as big a gap as possible."

"We ran a fairly hard set-up for the first pass," reported Dani Sordo, "but it didn’t give enough grip, so we went a little softer and I felt much more comfortable after that. I was really pleased with my car third time round."

Evgeny Novikov profited from his four runs to emerge as the morning’s fastest Citroën C4 WRC driver: "I am very pleased. The morning went well and I think we’ve got a good set-up for the weekend. The stages are very slippery."

Sébastien Ogier felt that the test stage didn’t really resemble the stages he discovered during recce: "The shakedown was very sandy, unlike the conditions we face this weekend. Like the weather, though, the stage itself was perfect. It’s nice to be taking part in such a great rally."

Conrad Rautenbach had a more troubled morning. The Zimbabwe-based driver returned to service with a broken upper strut-mounting: "I braked a little too late for a fourth-gear right-hander which came just after a fast left, and we hit a tree. My car wasn’t too badly damaged but we thought it best not to continue. It didn’t take the team long to make the necessary repairs and we were able to complete one last pass before the session ended."

The Rally de Portugal begins this afternoon at 4.45pm local time, with the crew due to tackle the Estadio Algarve super-special at 4.50pm.


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