By its own exacting standards, second place on this year’s Wales Rally GB wasn’t good enough for Citroen - which is why the French firm was back in the Welsh forests testing late last month, as technical chief Xavier Mestelan-Pinon explained.
“If you saw the results of our cars during GB and [in Spain] for the first day when it was very muddy and very slippery our car is not fast enough,” said Mestelan-Pinon. “The philosophy of our set-up works on 80 per cent of the stages in the season but when it’s slippery it’s not very good. We must work on the set-up of the differential and the damper as well.”
Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen each drove the DS3 WRC for a day in mid-Wales and Hirvonen said the team was delighted with the developments made.
“We have been working to find a solution for the set-up in Wales,” said the Finn. “The DS3 WRC is so agile that in some of the high-speed corners, we have been getting understeer. We found a good direction, not a solution. We are really pleased with the way we went.”