The C4 WRCs show their speed
The two Citroën Total World Rally Team drivers claimed five of the six stages which figured on the programme of Rally Poland’s second leg to showcase the competitiveness of their respective C4 WRCs. Dani Sordo and Marc Marti continued their impeccable run, ready to pounce on the slightest opportunity as they maintained their grip on third place. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena profited from the SupeRally ruling to rejoin this morning and are currently eighth in he classification for crews eligible to score Manufacturers’ World Championship points in Poland.

Once again, Saturday’s action focused on the region to the east Mikolajki, near Gizycko, and the menu featured two identical loops of three stages, including two tests which exceeded 30km in length, making this the longest leg of the rally.

Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo monopolised the top of the timesheets on the day’s first loop, with Seb posting fastest times on SS8 (Danowo) and SS10 (Wydminy), while Dani was quickest on SS9 (Gawliki). The Spaniard was still third overall as he checked into the lunchtime service halt and had even succeeded in closing to within less than 20 seconds of the leader, Mikko Hirvonen. "I wasn’t really in the rhythm at the beginning of the first stage. Apart from that, though, I am pleased with my performance this morning," commented the Spaniard. "I feel confident in my car and in my notes, and I was able to drive at my own pace. Judging by the lines of the two drivers ahead of me on the road, it looks like we were all at maximum attack this morning!"

"Everything was OK," reported Sébastien Loeb after the opening loop. "There’s not a great deal at stake for us now in terms of the Drivers’ World Championship on this rally, but we can still hope to pick up at least one Manufacturers’ point. We found a good pace and that enabled us to find our marks again and check that our notes are good."

The afternoon’s tests saw Sébastien Loeb continue his quick run as he added a further two best times to his tally to take him equal with Mikko Hirvonen as far as stage wins are concerned: "I push very hard again this afternoon. There’s little doubt that we would have been battling for the lead had it not been for our misadventure yesterday, and that’s what makes it all the more frustrating..."

Meanwhile, Dani Sordo preferred not to take any unnecessary risks, and the Spaniard ended the day with the same deficit as Friday evening: "We gained quite a lot of ground this morning and I thought we would be able to get even closer to Mikko and Jari-Matti this afternoon, but they managed to pull out a gap again. I dropped a few seconds when I saw from the split-times we were getting in the car that I wasn’t catching them. After that, I chose to lift a little so as not to jeopardise my footing on the provisional podium, which is very important for Citroën."

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