Tour de Corse : Citroen / JWRC
After dominating the first leg, both C2 S1600 experienced mixed fortunes today. After a driving mistake and a technical problem, the Citroen drivers lost the one-two positions they occupied last night.
The day commenced well for Dani Sordo claiming another stage win (SS5). However, on that same speed test Kris Meeke made a mistake: "Three or four kilometres after the start of the stage, in a slow speed corner, I braked on some gravel. I went straight and hit a wall. The steering arm suffered and we had to stop to replace it with the parts we had on board before we could re-start. The car was driving ok after that but was not 100% efficient though."

Having lost seventeen minutes there, the driver from Ulster came down to the top bottom of the Junior classification.

"I`m really disappointed,” said Yves Matton, Citroen Sport`s customer programme manager. "Kris has added a third mistake to the two offs he had in Sardinia and in Finland. I did tell him how important it was for him and for us to perform well, like he did in Germany."

Dani Sordo, who was still at ease behind the wheel of his C2, set another fastest time on SS6. While his car was being serviced during the midday break, he explained: "Of course with a two minute lead, I will have to think about managing from in front. It`s not what I like best because it`s even more difficult than attacking."

But Dani had to manage a more difficult situation than this. His engine cut off and stopped in the second passage of "Vico". He dropped 51 seconds there but he could keep his lead. However, the problem reoccurred several times and Dani and Marc were forced to stop before the end of the leg. They were given a 5 minute notional time for not having completed the last stage, which made them drop to fourth place, around thirty seconds from the second position.

For Kris Meeke, the second loop wasn`t more fortunate than the first one. "Around ten or twelve kilometres into the stage of Vico, we had a puncture at the left front. The road was so narrow that we had to continue around three more kilometres before we could find a safe place to stop and change the wheel. As we had two intermediate tyres on our spare wheels, we had to swap one rear dry tyre at the front. When we re-started with an intermediate on one side at the rear, the car has lost some of its balance."

However, this didn`t stop the British crew from posting the fastest time on the final stage of the day, bringing the record of the C2 S1600 to seven stage wins out of eight possible.


Tags: tour-de-corse, corsica, jwrc, citroen-c2, dani-srdo, kris-meeke,