The Citroën Total World Rally Team has won the last two rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship thanks to Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena in Mexico, and Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia in Portugal.
The two crews will both be gunning for another victory on gravel in the fourth event held in Jordan. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena already know the ropes as they won this rally held beside the Dead Sea last season!
After the snow in Rally Sweden, the altitude of Rally Mexico and the more traditional route of Rally Portugal, the teams in the FIA World Rally Championship will do battle in Jordan.
The third running of the blue ribbon event in the Middle East is being run over its usual itinerary. The service park overlooks the Dead Sea and the start will be given in the ancient city of Jerash, while the stages are laid out in the Jordanian desert, known as the cradle of humanity. Seven out of the ten stages are identical to the ones used in 2010, and the other three have been mainly selected from the 2008 route.
Sebastien Loeb is very much at home on this type of terrain, and his only aim is to add a sixty-fourth victory to his tally: “The championship title battle looks like it’s going to be very close, but that’s no real surprise. There are at least five victory contenders at the start of each round, so the Jordanian rally will be a hotly-contested one.”
Like the majority of rallies on gravel, sweeping will add an additional factor to the mix: “Depending on the sectors, a more or less thick layer of dust covers the road,” Loeb adds; “The quality of the surface changes according to the passage of the cars. The more the stages are swept, the quicker they become. It’s better not to be first out on the road as you won’t be penalized by these conditions. We’re setting off in second place on Thursday. It’s not the best position but we’ll have to try and stay in contact with the front-runners to be in with a chance of winning.”
“The roads are fairly quick and have a very hard surface,” adds Sebastien Ogier. “Once the line’s been swept you have excellent grip, almost identical to that on asphalt. On the other hand, in this desert countryside the lack of landmarks is a real problem so the notes are even more important than elsewhere.”
“By starting in fourth place on the first day, we’ve got a slight advantage, but others will be even better
placed,” continues the recent winner of Rally Portugal. “We have to get among the front-runners to be in a position to battle for the win at the end. Once again, it’s going to be a very closely-fought scrap and it’s important to bag good points for both championships.”
The rally’s schedule has been adapted to fit in with the Middle-Eastern weekend. The shakedown will take place on Wednesday 11th April at 8h00. The start of the first stage will be given on Thursday morning after a passage through Jerash. The finish will take place on Saturday 16th April in the late afternoon after 20 stages.