Zoom Loeb third fastest in the Raly Wales GB shakedown

The final round of the championship got underway this morning with the traditional pre-start shakedown. Citroën Sport profited from the test session to make final adjustments to the set-ups of the two C4 WRCs.

Today's 3.90km test took competitors to Penllergaer Forest, 18km north of the service park in Swansea. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Martí completed several runs of the sample stage which was extremely muddy despite the surprising yet welcome bright, sunny conditions.

"Compared with the wintry weather we faced during recce, this morning's conditions were perfect," explained Loeb who was third fastest. "Although the surface wasn't frozen, the going was very muddy and extremely slippery, as is so often the case on this event. We profited from the morning to make a few changes to the suspension set-up of our C4 WRC."

"Our aim wasn't to set the fastest time at all costs. Above all, we wanted to make further improvements to the handling of our car in these conditions where there's hardly any grip at all."

"The morning went very well for us," commented fourth-fastest Sordo. "The conditions were what you would expect to find in Wales at this time of the year. Compared with the set-up we have decided to use for the start, we tried a few variants to see how our car reacted to different changes to the settings. Today's work could well come in useful once the event starts. The test stage started to cut up after a certain number of passes. It started to get rougher and you could see ruts beginning to form, so we decided to call it a day after a while."

After shakedown, the crews headed for Cardiff in readiness for this evening's ceremonial start which begins at 6pm GMT. The weekend's first competitive action kicks off on Friday and the first car is due to pull out of Swansea tomorrow morning at 6am.

E.A. © CAPSIS International