Østberg wins WRC2 world title with the C3 R5!

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP – MONZA

Citroën’s Total-backed C3 R5s swept all before them this weekend on the stages of ACI Rally Monza. The final round of the 2020 world rally championship, included on the WRC calendar for the first time this year, was held on roads around the famous Monza race track and provided an incredibly difficult test given the decidedly wintry road conditions. Having already won three rounds of the WRC2 this year (Monte-Carlo, Sweden & Estonia), Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen claimed a fourth win to become WRC2 world champions after spending the vast majority of the season among the front-runners. Third at the end of Friday’s first proper leg, the Norwegians excelled in the snow on Saturday, moving to the front with two stage wins. It was a lead that they would hold until the end of the rally. “What an unbelievable feeling!”, commented a delighted Mads. “I am really happy, especially as it was such a difficult weekend, with so many ups and downs all through the year. We were very much the underdogs in the championship but we won through persistence and thanks to the excellent development work done on the C3 R5 by Citroën Racing and PH Sport.” Citroën enjoyed a strong overall performance as the honour of finishing as runner-up in the WRC3 world championship was secured by the talented youngster Marco Bulacia and his co-driver Marcelo Der Ohannesian, following a season during which they were consistently among the leading crews. After winning in Mexico, claiming second place in Turkey, fourth in Estonia and third in Sardinia, the Bolivian concluded the season this weekend with a fine sixth position given his limited experience in these conditions. Yohan Rossel and Benoît Fulcrand were less fortunate, however, caught out on Friday’s opening stage. They lost substantial time, dropped down the running order and saw their hopes of good result evaporate. They nonetheless made it to the end, having produced the occasionally impressive moment and added to their experience.

WRC championship update

Coming into the final round in Italy fourteen points ahead of Sébastien Ogier (Toyota Yaris WRC) and twenty-four clear of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC), Elfyn Evans (Toyota Yaris WRC) was favourite to win a maiden world title. The threat posed by Neuville faded on SS4 after the Belgian clipped a billboard and suffered engine damage from heavy standing water. Everything was going to plan for the Welshman, running third whilst Ogier moved into the lead, when he was caught out in treacherous conditions on SS11. He slid wide and off on a snow-covered bank and with it, his hopes of the title disappeared. Ogier, on the other hand, held his nerve to win the rally and claim his seventh world rally championship title. Hyundai secured the manufacturers’ title with the second and third places scored by Ott Tänak (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC), the defending champion, and Dani Sordo (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC).

Did you know?

Although Total keeps the development of custom-built products for official programmes where the energy group is a partner, with a clear eye on protecting its technology, the lubricants used by Citroën Racing this season and derived from the Customer Racing range have also proven their very high level of performance, durability and versatility. Total products have thus been used on the WRC2 world championship-winning car with Mads Ostberg’s C3 R5 and almost made it a double in the WRC3 with Marco Bulacia’s C3 R5.