January 22, 2015 – Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena set the fastest time in Wednesday’s shakedown at Rallye Monte-Carlo, to lay down a marker on their return to the World Rally Championship after more than a year away from the WRC. They finished ahead of their Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team team-mates, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle, who were second-fastest in another DS 3 WRC!
To set a good time in the Rallye Monte-Carlo shakedown, you had to make an early start. First on the road, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena took full advantage of the good conditions to set the time to beat.
As more crews completed the stage, nobody managed to better their performance. And every run made the road increasingly slippery.
After four hours of testing, Sébastien Loeb finished ahead of Kris Meeke by 0.4 seconds and beat Sébastien Ogier by 1.4 seconds. In the third works DS 3 WRC, Mads Østberg was seventh fastest, 1.8 seconds off the pace, just ahead of Sébastien Chardonnet.
Sébastien Loeb: “I got the feeling back. It’s a little bit different, as I haven’t driven on roads like these for a long time. I’m really happy to be here and to see everyone from the rallying world again. Monte-Carlo is a home event for Daniel and the stages are in France. We’re here to enjoy ourselves. It’s difficult to tell what will happen once the rally gets underway; it’ll all depend on the conditions!”
Kris Meeke: “Traditionally, everyone wants a Monte-Carlo with ice, snow and rain… but it’s really tough for the drivers! There are hazards everywhere because of the weather. There’s a long way to go until we reach the Col de Turini and Monaco. We did some very good test runs and I feel good in the DS 3 WRC. You can never be confident before the start of a Monte-Carlo, but I feel relaxed.”
Mads Østberg: “The set-up was perfect. The shakedown went very well. I just needed to get used to the DS 3 WRC again and to these very specific conditions. The roads were very slippery. We took advantage of the conditions to test different types of tyres. I can’t wait for tomorrow!”