Shakedown – Sordo and Duval in the lead, Citroen ahead of Subaru

Four days after leaving Spain, the WRC cars are already back on the special stages. Dani Sordo and François Duval lead Sébastien Loeb in the shakedown of the Rallye de France – Tour de Corse. [Results]

On a nearly seven-kilometer stretch, once again not very representative of the special stages, the crews did not make multiple passes: « It’s nice to continue with another rally on tarmac, » says Dani Sordo.

« We are satisfied with the car’s behavior. I immediately regained an excellent feeling. It wasn’t worth racking up the kilometers. »

Two Subaru drivers follow the three Citroëns. Marcus Grönholm is only in sixth place more than three seconds behind the best performance.

Debut on tiptoe for the Suzuki SX4 WRC driven by Nicolas Bernardi, more than eleven seconds behind Dani Sordo and François Duval.

Originally scheduled for Finland, Suzuki’s debut has been postponed to the Rally de France. Only one car is entered (and will also be in Great Britain) to continue the testing program started a few weeks ago under the direction of Monster Tajima and its technical director Michel Nandan.

In Ajaccio, the French-Japanese team has only one objective; cover as many kilometers as possible: « The car must be brought back intact to record as much information as possible », comments Nicolas Bernardi.

« It is an honor to have Suzuki’s trust to debut the SX4 WRC. We will not be competing against the best teams in the world; it is a way to conduct tests in competition. »

Shekdown ranking in France

According to the WRC