Citroen team reflect on the perfect Rally Argentina
After taking its second one-two result of the year in Argentina, and moving further ahead in both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ title races, the management and drivers of the Citroen Total World Rally Team reflected on their weekend’s work.
"This rally gave everyone in the team a chance to shine," said Citroen Racing director Olivier Quesnel.
"This event is particularly tough on the mechanicals, but both our C4 WRCs proved perfectly reliable and they took it all in their stride. In addition to the strength of our cars, Sebastien and Dani drove with their head and put in a great performance to claim 15 fastest times from 23. They didn't make any mistakes and they both succeeded in turning on the speed when they had to. We fully deserved today's one-two result," he added.
After wrapping up his 52nd WRC victory, Loeb said he had special memories of the event in 2004 when his then team-mate Carlos Sainz took his own record to 26 WRC wins driving a Xsara WRC.
"So much has happened since then," said Sebastien. "We were second behind Carlos and Marc that year. Since then, we haven't been beaten here in Argentina. It's always nice to win this rally. This year's event was difficult to begin with and we had to drive flat out until Saturday lunchtime. The situation then tipped in our favour when Mikko Hirvonen hit trouble and we were able to control from in front after that. That said, I tried to keep up a quick pace all the way to the finish because it can be so easy to make a mistake over a jump, or by clouting one of the rocks that line the stages here. It's been a dream start to the season for us!"
Dani Sordo finished second overall to dislodge Mikko Hirvonen from second place by one point in the chase for the drivers' title: "I felt comfortable throughout the weekend. This is our second one-two finish of the year and it's a great result for the whole team. My intention now is to defend my second place in the championship..."

Pos  Driver              Car         Time
 1.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen     3h57m40.3s
 2.  Dani Sordo          Citroen     +  1m13.1s
 3.  Henning Solberg     Ford        +  4m04.1s
 4.  Federico Villagra   Ford        +  5m59.7s
 5.  Matthew Wilson      Ford        +  6m10.9s
 6.  Jari-Matti Latvala  Ford        +  9m50.0s
 7.  Sebastien Ogier     Citroen     + 20m55.1s
 8.  Nasser Al-Attiyah   Subaru      + 23m11.6s
 9.  Juan Marchetto      Mitsubishi  + 23m34.3s
10.  Marcos Ligato       Mitsubishi  + 25m24.5s

Sebastien Loeb wins Rally Argentina!
Citroen C4 driver Sebastien Loeb has won Rally Argentina - and taken his fifth successive victory on the South American WRC classic.
The five time world rally champion headed a Citroen Total team one-two finish, completing the three day event 1min 13.1 seconds ahead of his Spanish team-mate Dani Sordo.
Today’s win was the 52nd in Loeb’s record breaking WRC career, his fifth from five events this season, and puts the Frenchman in a commanding lead of this year’s drivers’ championship, with a perfect maximum score of 50 points.
Loeb took the rally lead from Sordo on Saturday’s second stage [SS12] and held it until the end. His team-mate moved into the runner-up spot on SS15, when the pair’s only real challenger, Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen, retired with an overheated engine.
“It really couldn’t have gone much better for us,” said Loeb at the end of the Cordoba Super Special. “It’s been a great rally. The stages are exciting to drive and we enjoyed a good fight with Mikko until Saturday afternoon. Okay, after he retired it got a bit less exciting but I still enjoyed my driving here.”
Throughout the rally Dani Sordo played the perfect support role to Loeb. The Spaniard took the lead on Friday night and tackled Saturday’s stages first - helping to sweep a cleaner line for Loeb behind. “The car has been perfect and I’m happy to have done a good job this weekend,” he said. “It’s been a good performance for Citroen in the manufacturers’ championship and for me too in the drivers.’”
Sordo moved up to second place in the drivers’ standings on 31 points - one ahead of Mikko Hirvonen who drops to third.
Following the dramatic last day retirements of Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg, a solid drive from Henning Solberg netted the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver third place - matching the Norwegian’s best result on a WRC rally. “I’ve worked very hard all weekend to get this result,” he said. “I broke my gravel spec gearbox on Thursday so I’ve had to go tougher than ever to go fast here.” Henning lies fourth in the championship on a total of 20 points.
A delighted Federico Villagra finished fourth, to score his best ever WRC finish on his home rally. The Munchi’s Ford team driver, who lives in Villa Carlos Paz, scored his previous best - sixth - on this event in 2008. “I’m very happy and it’s a great feeling to get this result in front of my home crowd,” said Villagra. “It’s been a very interesting rally and a good fight with Matthew [Wilson] today. We really enjoyed it!”
Briton Matthew Wilson rounded off the top five in his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Focus, but felt without the set-up problems that slowed him on Saturday he could have done better. “I’m a little bit frustrated because I think we could have got fourth,” he said. “Fifth is a good result though, and had I not thrown away the same position in Portugal it would have been my third in a row!”
Jari-Matti Latvala finished sixth after his car’s earlier fuel pressure problem seemingly cured itself. “It’s running fine now - it must have been an electrical failure,” said the Ford driver.
Citroen Junior team driver Sebastien Ogier looked all but certain to take two championship points for finishing seventh, but ended up losing two places when his car’s starter motor broke at the start of the Super Special. The Frenchman re-started today as a SupeRally entry after retiring on Saturday with a broken damper. “Apart from the starter motor today had been okay for us, we’ve done some good times,” he said.
Subaru Group N drivers Nasser Al Attiyah and Juan Marchetto finished seventh and eighth respectively to take the final drivers’ championship points.

Ford boss insists it’s not over yet
Ford of Europe motorsport director Mark Deans has insisted that despite a disappointing weekend in Argentina his team will continue to challenge arch rivals Citroen in the 2009 World Rally Championship.
Ford collected only three manufacturers’ championship points in Argentina, while series leaders Citroen scooped a maximum 18 to move 30 points clear at the top of the standings after five rallies.
In the drivers’ championship, a no-score for Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen means he drops to third in the standings, 20 adrift of the leader Sebastien Loeb.
"This wasn't a great weekend from a championship perspective but the season is still in its first half and we'll regroup, we'll keep fighting and continue to challenge,” said Deans.
BP Ford Abu Dhabi team director Malcolm Wilson admitted Argentina had not been kind to the team.
"It was a disappointing weekend, especially as we were challenging for victory yesterday afternoon,” he said. “It was Mikko's first retirement since 2006 and ended his run of 22 consecutive points finishes going back to the same year. I'm pleased with Jari-Matti's progress. He was on course for a podium and I'm disappointed to lose that, but this rally was good for his confidence”

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Rally Argentina entry list published
The organisers of Rally Argentina have announced that 59 crews have registered for the event, which gets underway on Thursday 23 April.
The rally, round five of the 2009 World Rally Championship, has attracted 10 World Rally Car entries and a wide selection of P-WRC, J-WRC and national championship drivers.
In the WRC competition each of this year’s five manufacturer teams has registered. The Citroen Total team, as usual, will rely on its two drivers Sebastien Loeb (who won the rally last year) and Dani Sordo. The French firm’s Junior team will run two cars - for nominated points scorers Conrad Rautenbach and Sebastien Ogier.
Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala are the two nominated drivers for the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team, while the Ford powered Stobart VK M-Sport squad will field two cars for Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg. The manufacturer team entries are rounded off by multiple Argentinean Rally Champion Federico Villagra who will drive a Focus RS WRC for the Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team.
Rally Argentina is an eligible round for both the Junior and Production car championships.
With production front runners Armindo Araujo and Patrik Sandell electing to miss the South American fixture, the men behind them in the standings - Eyvind Brynildsen and Martin Prokop - have a golden opportunity to make up some ground. Victory for either Mitsubishi driver next week would catapult them into the series lead. Behind them, Nasser Al Attiyah (Subaru) will be another top-five P-WRC driver looking to make progress up the table.
Suzuki Swift S1600 driver Michal Kosciuszko is the leading light in the two-wheel drive J-WRC category. The Pole heads to the rally tied on points with series leader Martin Prokop but could come away with a healthy series lead because Prokop has chosen to miss this round. Aaron Burkart returns to the series in Argentina after missing Rally Portugal. A win next week would put him top of the top of the standings. Renault Clio driver Alessandro Bettega rounds off a trio of J-WRC drivers.

THE WORLD RALLY CARS ARE READY FOR THE CHALLENGE
The three Ford teams and the two Citroën structures have already entered the 29th edition of Rally Argentina, to be run on April 23 to 26 organized by the Automovil Club Argentino.
The champion, Sébastien Loeb, and Daniel Sordo, will command the two units of the Citroën Official team, in the fourth round of the FIA World Rally Championship, while the second division of the French make, the Citroën Junior Team, will count upon the 2008 JWRC winner Sebastien Ogier and the man from Zimbawe, Conrad Rautembach.
Meanwhile Ford, will try to break the overwhelming rhythm of Citroën in the beginning of the season. Mikko Hirvonene and Jari-Matti Latvala will be the drivers of the two cars from the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, the official team of the oval make.
Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson will fight to score some points with the two Ford Focus from the Stobart VK M-Sport, and Federico Villagra, representing the Munchi’s Ford will take advantage of his condition of local driver trying to be on the leading places to excel in front of his fans.
Apart from the WRC stars, Rally Argentina 2009, will also receive the best exponents of the Production and Junior World Rally Championships, ensuring a first level show in the sierras of Córdoba.

Local drivers can enter until April 7
Of course another of the outstanding features of Rally Argentina will be the participation of the local drivers, regular figures of the regional series. Over 20 cars have confirmed their entry so far, and more of them are expected to do so before the new closing date for entries on April 7 at 20:00hs.
 
How to enter
All interested crews may find the entry forms and procedure inside the “Competitors” section of this website.