The WRC arrives back in Europe this weekend for the Rallye de France – Tour de Corse - the 14th round out of sixteen in the 2005
FIA World Rally Championship.
France will also play host to the seventh round in the 2005 FIA Junior WRC.
The event comprises 341.80 competitive kilometres which will be run over just 12 special stages, with the longest stage, the 36.24km Vico - Col de Sarzoggiu run, on leg two and the shortest stage of the rally - Acqua Doria - Serra di Ferro – found on the final leg of the event.
Special notes:
Known as the ‘rally of a thousand corners’ due to its twisty nature, Rallye de France – Tour de Corse runs to a slightly modified route for 2005 but retains many of the features that have made it one of the most challenging of the season.
With just six stages used for the event, the Corsican stages are long, hugging the mountains around the capital Ajaccio as the stages wind their way round some of the trickiest stages on the WRC calendar.
Bright sunshine can give way to heavy rain with only a moment's notice making stages incredibly slippery and making tyre choice critical. With rain forecast for the weekend, it promises to be a difficult event for the competitors.
FIA World Rally Championship news:
Second place on Rally Japan last time out was good enough to secure the WRC title for Frenchman Sebastien Loeb – the
Citroen driver tasting championship success for the second successive season.
In the Manufacturers' championship, Citroen lead Peugeot by 22 points following Rally Japan, despite Marcus Gronholm taking victory in the Far East, while Petter Solberg’s late retirement means
Subaru still trail Ford in the battle for third.
In other WRC news, Peugeot’s
Markko Martin confirmed that he will not return to WRC action in 2005 following the death of co-driver Michael Park. Nicolas Bernardi comes in this weekend in Corsica and next weekend in Spain.
News from the Manufacturers' teams:
Citroen Total:
[
Sebastien Loeb, car #1 and
Francois Duval, car #2]
With the title now secure, Sebastien Loeb can focus his attention on a first Corsican victory. The Frenchman finished 13th in 2003 after losing ten minutes stuck on a bank and second last season as he focused on securing the title but will be racing to win this season.
