Citroen struggle in Meeke’s absence
THEIR two cars were still there at the end of Rally Italia’s day one in a soggy, wet Sardinia but other than that there was little to cheer up the beleaguered Citroen team.
In their first World championship rally since sacking Kris Meeke, the French team were off the pace with Mads Ostberg in fifth place and Craig Breen seventh, thanks largely to the retirements of Andreas Mikkelsen and Ott Tanak.
Ostberg and Breen were already a minute and more behind the leader, World champion Sebastien Ogier in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta.
Seventh: Craig Breen
Meeke was dismissed after one too many accidents, a huge car-destroying crash in Rally Portugal, but he was one of the few drivers who could challenge Ogier or Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, this season’s World championship leader.
Neither Ostberg nor Breen could get close yesterday, the best they could do was one second fastest time by Ostberg and a fourth by Breen as Ogier and Neuville fought for supremacy at the top of the leaderboard.
In fairness, Breen was plagued by a malfunctioning handbrake which stalled his C3 WRC numerous times, leaving him fuming.
“I’m happy to get to the end of the day,” he said. “It’s been so very tricky in the conditions and the handbrake issue didn’t help.”
At the front, Ogier had opened up an 18-second lead over Neuville with Jari-Matti Latvala a further 17 seconds back after his Toyota team-mate Tanak stopped on the final stage of the day with some damage to the colling system. FERNANDO Alonso believes he must be considered as one of the finest Formula One drivers of all time on the eve of his 300th grand prix.
Alonso, 37 next month, will become only the fourth driver in history to reach the milestone here in Canada tomorrow.
“I am one of the best to have raced in F1,” Alonso said.
“I am probably not the fastest driver in qualifying. I’m probably not the fastest driver in the race, or in wet conditions, but I am a 9.5 in all areas, and I try to benefit from that.”
It has been more than five years since Alonso has won a race, while he toasted the last of
Experienced: Fernando Alonso
his two successive titles in 2006. Remarkably, Lewis Hamilton has double the tally of Alonso’s victories: 64 plays 32.
He was signed by McLaren from Renault as the two-time world champion in 2007, but he departed after just one season following bitter fall-outs with Hamilton and the team’s long-serving chairman Ron Dennis.
Alonso appeared to resurrect his title hopes with a move to Ferrari, but after he was beaten by Sebastian Vettel at the season-concluding races in 2010 and 2012, he was shown the door after the Italians grew frustrated with him.
Alonso opted for another term at McLaren, but his second spell has been disastrous. He has got the very best out of an under-performing car, but knows he may probably never win again.
“I have a lot of good memories,” the Spaniard added. “There have been a lot of ups and downs, but winning my two championships was definitely the high point.”