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2004 WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

SEBASTIEN LOEB IS 2004 WORLD RALLY CHAMPION
CITROEN WINS MANUFACTURER CHAMPIONSHIP

• 30 year old French Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb won his maiden World Rally title. He becomes the 2nd French world champion (after Didier Auriol in 1994). He also equalled Auriol's record 6 wins in a season.
  LOEB (CITROEN) after Corsica Rally: "...To be crowned in France with a French team, and to win the manufacturers' title, there is nothing better"
  Regarding his 6 wins (Monte Carlo, Sweden, Cyprus, Turkey, Germany, Australia): "... It's nice to share the record with Didier Auriol ... As a driver, it is always nice to get statistics like this! "
  CITROEN (G FREQUELIN): "... When I discovered Sebastien, he did a good job and showed he had talent ... From then on I had plenty of hopes for him, to the point that whenever they asked me if I was surprised by what he achieved, I replied no, because I had set the bar very high in terms of my hopes for him. I think that he has the potential to win a number of titles, but these things are always difficult to predict. It depends on the car. You need a good driver, a good co-driver, a good team and a good car. I hope that we’ll be able to give him a car worthy of his talents.”

MITSUBISHI
TO MISS LAST 6 RALLIES OF 2004

2004 Peugeot 307 WRC

• 2004 World Rally of Australia: 12-14 November LOEB/ wins
  *** record 6 wins in a season ***

• Rally 15 of 16: Spain, Rally Catalunya: October 29-31 MARTIN/ wins

• Rally 14 of 16: France, Corsica: October 15-17 MARTIN/ wins
  *** LOEB WINS WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP ***

• Rally 13 of 16: Italy: October 1-3 SOLBERG/ wins

• Rally 12 of 16: Great Britain: September 17-19 SOLBERG/ wins

• Rally 11 of 16: Japan: Sept 3-5 SOLBERG/ wins
  *** new rally ***

• Rally 10 of 16: Germany: August 20-22 LOEB/ wins

• Rally 9 of 16: Finland, August 6-8, 2004 GRONHOLM/wins

• Rally 8 of 16: Argentina, July 15-18, 2004 SAINZ/ wins
  *** record 26th win for Carlos Sainz ***

• Rally 7 of 16: Turkey, June 25-27, 2004 LOEB/ wins

• Rally 6 of 16: Acropolis, June 5-6, 2004 SOLBERG/ wins

• Rally 5 of 16: Cyprus, May 14-16, 2004 LOEB/ wins
  *** GRONHOLM finished 1st but was disqualified due to illegal water pump ***

• Rally 4 of 16, New Zealand, April 16-18  SOLBERG/ wins

• Rally 3 of 16, Mexico, March 12-14 MARTIN/ wins
  *** NEW RALLY *** First World Rally in N America since 1988

• Rally 2 of 16, Sweden, Feb 6-8 - LOEB/ wins
  *** first non scandinavian to win here ***

• Rally 1 of 16, Monte Carlo, Jan 23-25 - LOEB/ wins
  Debut of 2004 Peugeot

• 2004 CHAMPION: PER-GUNNAR ANDERSSON, SWE, SUZUKI IGNIS
  3 wins from 7 rounds
• 2 Guy Wilks
• 3 Mirco Baldacci
• 2003 Junior World Rally Champion: Brice Tirabassi, Renault
• 2002 Junior World Rally Champion: Daniel Sola, Citroen

SUBARU - Impreza WRC

1 Petter Solberg (NOR) / Phil Mills (GB)
2 Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) / Jarmo Lehtinen (FIN)

CITROËN - Xsara WRC

3 Sébastien Loeb (FRA) / Daniel Elena (FRA)
4 Carlos Sainz (SPA) / Marc Marti (SPA)

PEUGEOT - 307 WRC *** new car debut ***

5 Marcus Gronholm (FIN) / Timo Rautiainen (FIN)
6 Freddy Loix (BEL) / Sven Smeets (BEL)

FORD - Focus WRC

7 Markko Märtin (EST) / Michael Park (GB)
8 François Duval (BEL) / Stéphane Prevot (BEL)

MITSUBISHI - Lancer WRC04

9 Gilles Panizzi (FRA) / Herve Panizzi (FRA)
10 Gigi Galli (ITA) / Guido D'amore (ITA)

Tommi Makinen retires
Winner of 4 consecutive world rally championships (1996, 97, 98, 99) retired at the end of 2003 season.

Colin McRae out
He lost his drive after 11 years in world rallying. He made his world full time world rally debut with Subaru in 1994. He won the championship in 1995 and finished runner-up 3 times (1996, 97, 2001)

Richard Burns out
2001 world champion has been diagnosed with a form of brain tumour. He will miss 2004 season to recuperate with radiotherapy. He also missed the final rally of 2003 (Rally of Great Britain) after a fainting spell. Burns was to move from Peugeot back to Subaru.

Mikko Hirvonen joins Subaru
23 year old Finnish driver will partner world champion Petter Solberg in Subaru next season. Hirvonen will drive in place of Richard Burns who will not be racing next year due to illness. Former world champion Colin McRae was also considered by Subaru but rejected mainly due to financial reasons.
HIRVONEN: "... This is a fantastic opportunity for me ... there's so much that I want to achieve as a driver in the WRC .."

Gilles Panizzi to head up Mitsubishi
Factory Mitsubishi will return to World Rallying after a year's break with a former Peugeot driver - Gilles Panizzi.
PANIZZI: " .. Joining Mitsubishi is the perfect solution for me ... I have long stated that I wanted a full WRC program and I believe the long-term agreement we have will be beneficial for everyone .."
MITSUBISHI (Sven Quandt): " ..We are taking our return to the sport very seriously and Gilles is part of our commitment to a successful future.."

Freddy Loix joins Peugeot
With co-driver Sven Smeets, Loix will drive factory Peugeot's 2nd car. Former world champion Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen will continue to lead the Peugeot team.

Auriol out
Didier Auriol has been released by Skoda.

2004 TEAM CHANGES:

Peugeot to debut 307 WRC
Championship winning Peugeot 206 WRC will be replaced by the new 307 WRC car starting from the opening rally of 2004.
PEUGEOT: ".... After 4 full World Rally Championship campaigns, including 3 consecutive years in which it dominated its rivals plus a 2003 season that saw it narrowly miss out on a fourth title, the 206 WRC is to hand over the baton to the 307 WRC in 2004 ... With a total score of 24 wins and 41 podiums to its name, the 206 WRC marked rallying history by notching up one of the finest records of the sport's modern era. The new 307 WRC will take over from the beginning of the 2004 season in Monte Carlo, subject to the car's homologation by the FIA .."

Mitsubishi returns to Rallying after a break in 2003

Skoda to race part-time to concentrate on development of their new Fabia WRC car.

Hyundai withdraws from rallying to concentrate on development for 2005

2004 POINTS SYSTEM:

1st = 10 pts , 2nd = 8 , 3rd = 6 , 4th = 5; 5th = 4; 6th = 3; 7th = 2; 8th = 1

---

2003 WORLD RALLY CHAMPION: Petter Solberg (NOR), Subaru

2003 WORLD RALLY MANUFACTURER CHAMPION: CITROEN

Petter Solberg won his maiden world rally championship title.
SOLBERG (champion): "... I just can't believe this. It's amazing, absolutely amazing .."

4 rally wins (Cyprus, Australia, Corsica, Great Britain)

2003 FINAL STANDING:
1 SOLBERG, Subaru, 72 points
2 LOEB, Citroen, 71
3 SAINZ, Citroen, 63
4 BURNS, Peugeot, 58
5 MARTIN, Ford, 49
6 GRONHOLM, Peugeot, 45

2003 JUNIOR WORLD RALLY FINAL STANDING

1 Brice Tirabassi Renault Clio
2 Salvador Canellas, Suzuki Ignis
3 Daniel Carlsson Suzuki Ignis

2003 PRODUCTION CAR RALLY STANDING
1 Martin Rowe, Subaru
2 Toshi Arai Subaru
=3 Karamjit Singh, Proton ; Blomqvist, Subaru

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