Dani Sordo's second championship finale
On the weekend of October 8th-9th, Daniel Sordo and his co-driver Marc Marti
took on Alberto Hevia in the Rally 'Principe de Asturias', the final round
of the 2005 Spanish Rally Championship. After a simply breathtaking, two-day
battle, the Citroen C2 crew took victory by just 1.3 seconds to become not
only the Princes of Asturias but also the Kings of Spain!
Three weeks later, the protege of Carlos Sainz and his former co-driver will
be competing in the final round of the 2005 FIA Junior World Championship in
Catalonia. Here, their main rival will be Guy Wilks, the only man still
capable of preventing the young Cantabria-based Citroen C2 Super 1600 driver
from clinching the title. Wilks currently has a score of 35 points; a win in
Spain will take his total to 45 points.
Between the two events, Dani Sordo was in dominating form last weekend in
Corsica where he scored seven fastest stage times from a possible twelve.
However, just when it looked as though he was about to take an emphatic win,
he lost time with an electrical problem. Although he failed to clinch the
title, he still finished the French round in 2nd place, giving him 8 points
which takes his personal total to 43.
So whatever result Guy Wilks obtains this weekend, Dani only needs to pick
up two further points in Spain to make sure of the championship. If both
finish the year equal on points, the Citroen driver's three wins in
Sardinia, Finland and Germany will outweigh the single success so far of
Wilks in Mexico. The cards appear to be stacked up in Dani Sordo's favour
therefore, since he only needs is to finish 7th or better on Sunday
afternoon.
Sordo's Team Kronos Racing team-mate Kris Meeke would also still have been
in the running had he not gone off on the second morning in Corsica which
cost the Monte Carlo Rally JWRC winner very dearly. In the end, the
Ulsterman collected just one point in Ajaccio, taking his personal total to
30 points. He still has a chance of finishing in 2nd place in the
championship and that is exactly what he will endeavour to do after showing
in both Corsica and Germany that his talent isn't only limited to gravel,
the type of surface on which he grew up.
Citroen's third man in Spain will be the young Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach
who drove the 2006 version C2 Super 1600 for the first time in Corsica
where, with the assistance of P. H. Sport, his consistency saw him finish
5th in the JWRC standings, the best result of his short career to date. He
will be looking for a similar result this weekend in Salou.
For the Customer Competition Manager Yves Matton and for everyone at Citroen
Sport, the Spanish round is of double interest. "We have to admit that we
didn't obtain the result we were hoping for given the level of performance
of the C2 Super 1600 in Corsica, even though it was fastest over every stage
but one. Hopefully, we will have a trouble-free run in Catalonia. Naturally,
we would love to finish 1st and 2nd in the championship but the Spanish
round will also enable us to see how the 2006 asphalt-spec C2 Super 1600,
which will be available for our customers in the next few months, compares
with its rivals..."
-citroen-
