Sordo upbeat
after Junior
switch

Dani Sordo has given an upbeat assessment of Citroen’s decision to drop him to the Junior team for the forthcoming Rally Finland, saying the lack of pressure could help him achieve a better result.

Citroen has relegated Sordo from the factory squad in favour of Junior Team driver Sebastien Ogier for the three gravel rallies which remain this year, although Sordo will be back in the main team for the asphalt rounds.

Sordo, aged 27, is currently sixth in the World Championship standings and has been beaten by Ogier on four of the seven rallies run so far this year. But as he prepares to make his Junior Team debut in Finland, together with new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, Sordo was putting a brave face on the situation.

“I’ll be feeling less pressure,” he said. “By switching teams, I won’t always have to drive with the fundamental need to score manufacturer points for Citroën at the back of my mind. I’m going to concentrate on just doing my own rally and delivering the best performance possible.

“I started off on the World Rally Championship driving the Citroën Xsara WRC, when some people from the Citroën Junior Team were also there. These were very happy memories, and we had some good performances that helped me to secure a factory drive. There is a very nice atmosphere in the team and everybody is extremely professional. The results speak for themselves. Everything is there to enable us to have a very good rally.”

Junior team manager Benoit Nogier said his team was committed to helping Sordo achieve the best possible result. “The objective of this team is to allow young drivers to perform to the best of their abilities at the highest level,” he said. “We have seen this goal being achieved with Sebastien Ogier. His results reflect the hard work that the entire team has put in since the start of the season. We hope to be at the same level with Dani, so that he too can show what he is capable of.”

For the first time in his short World Rally Championship career, Kimi Raikkonen will be starting an event that he has already contested last year. In 2009, the 2007 Formula One World Champion showed some impressive pace, running as high as 15th overall in an Abarth Grande Punto S2000 before crashing on the second day.

“We were able to get back up to speed on gravel thanks to a good pre-Finland test,” said Kimi. “Those testing kilometres are absolutely vital on a rally like this one. The experience from last year is certainly going to help, but there is such a performance gap between a Super 2000 machine and a World Rally Car that it’s almost like driving a different rally. I’m really looking forward to getting started.

When I was in Formula One, I never got the chance to race in front of my home crowd. I know that there are going to be loads of fans out in service and by the side of the stages. For me, this is a real highlight of the season!”