LOEB CREATES HISTORY: 5 WINS IN A ROW He dominated the rally by leading from the Super Special stage on Thursday night. He had a commanding lead after Leg 1. He extended his lead by winning all stages the next day - Saturday. Overall he won 12 out of 19 stages and finished 1min 36.2sec ahead of 2nd place getter Toni Gardemeister. LOEB: "Five wins in a row? It hasn't really sunk in yet!". This was his 16th career WRC win. Team-mate Carlos Sainz finished 3rd in his final rally and helped Citroen to lead the manfucaturer standing from Peugeot. "I have finished my career in world class rallying on the podium of the event that gave me my first WRC win. What more could a sportsman ask for?" LOEB'S RECORD: 6 wins in a season (equals Didier Auriol, 1992); 5 win a row (equals Massimo Biasion, 1988, 1989)
2005 RALLY:	1	2	3	4	5
LEG 3	1 LOEB	2 GARDEMEISTER	3 SAINZ	4 GRONHOLM	5 HIRVONEN
LEG 2	1 LOEB	2 GARDEMEISTER	3 SAINZ	4 GRONHOLM	5 HIRVONEN
LEG 1	1 LOEB	2 GRONHOLM	3 SAINZ	4 GARDEMEISTER	5 HIRVONEN
2004 RESULT:	1 SOLBERG	2 LOEB	3 ROVANPERA	4 DUVAL	5 CARLSSON

LOEB'S RECORD WINNING RUN 6 wins from 8 rounds 5 wins in a row SAINZ BACK FOR 1 MORE FINAL RUN:

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2005 ACROPOLIS WORLD RALLY

• Rally 8 of 16: June 24-26, 2005
• SURFACE: Rough gravel; twisty mountain tracks; rocks
• WEATHER: Hot dusty conditions; temperature over 35°C
• ROUTE: starts from the Acropolis Athens on Thursday 7.30 pm
• PAST ACROPOLIS RALLY WINNERS
• 2004 winner: Petter Solberg, Subaru
• 2003 winner: Markko Martin, Ford
• 2002, 2001, 2000 winner: Colin McRae, Ford
• 1999: Richard Burns, Subaru

• For the first time the rally will start on the 1.2km tarmac track inside the Athens Olympic stadium.

• He has been persuaded to do one more rally for Citroen. "I have no intention of staging a comeback to the World Rally Championship. This will be my final contribution ... I hope we don't hit any problems so that I can help Citroën as much as I can one last time"

• He'll drive a Volkswagen Touareg with co driver Andreas Schulz. "This is a challenge that's always been in my mind ... It isn't my objective to try to win the race in my first year. What we have to do is be relatively competitive."

2005 RALLY RESULT:

• 1 Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen (12 stage wins)
  "I really took it easy. I wasn't even flat out along some straights over the pebbles towards the end of 'Perivoli'! Five wins in a row? It hasn't really sunk in yet! ... This rally has been extremely positive in view of both title chases. We know we're not invincible and this winning run will come to an end one day but, if we want to extend it, we cannot afford to relax and next week we will be back out testing."
• 2 Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Ford +1min 36.2s (1 stage win)
  "We've had no big problems and the whole weekend has gone well. We've pushed hard from the very first kilometre. It's hard to fight against someone as experienced as Carlos but we did it. The Focus has worked well, Michelin's tyres have been excellent and now we have to try to turn second place into a win in the second half of the season."
• 3 Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen (1 stage win)
  "A month and a half ago, I was following Citroën's results in the press and phoning up every now and again for a friendly chat. I didn't have the slightest idea I would soon find myself back competing with the Xsara WRC. It's been a fantastic weekend! I am proud to have succeeded in meeting the objective Guy set me, and proud to have scored valuable points in both events. The team is back on top of the championship and I hope it will stay there. They deserve it. As for me, I have finished my career in world class rallying on the podium of the event that gave me my first WRC win. What more could a sportsman ask for?"
• 4 Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot (2 stage wins)
  "There was nothing we could do today; the only thing that could happen is that we made a mistake and went off. So I thought it was best just to bring the car home and make sure of the points. The roads were very rough and extremely dusty. It's been a disappointing rally as we were leading for most of the first day and we would have had a chance to challenge for the win. Looking on the positive side, the performance of the car is better and this is what we have to concentrate on for the future."
• 5 Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) Ford (3 stage wins)
• 6 Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Mitsubishi
  "It was really good to be in a battle and to finish sixth and get points in a rough rally like Greece is good news. It's been a hot weekend and I'm happy our car has worked so well. Every stage was nice, we had no dramas and although the conditions were maybe a little easier than previous years, it was still a normal Acropolis. We've fought all weekend and sixth didn't come easily; I'm especially happy for Mario (Fornaris) that we had a good result on his last rally with the team."
• 7 Gianluigi Galli , Mitsubishi
  "Everything has gone the right way for us; I am happy. I have to say this was always going to be the hardest rally of the year for me, because of my lack of experience, but things have worked well, the car has been very good and I think the whole team should be pleased for a good job. What I can say is that the rally was easier than I expected; I thought it would be rougher from what everyone said."
• 8 Markko Martin , Ford
  "This has been a strange rally for us: we have had no real problems but we have struggled a bit to find the proper feeling in the car. On the whole our tyre choices have been fine and we have had no mechanical problems at all. We have been able to continue our record of finishing every rally so far this year, and with more time I hope to find a
  better feeling in the car."
• 9 Petter Solberg , Subaru
  "As you'd expect I'm disappointed with my result, it's not the one I was hoping for. In fact, I have been disappointed about my results on the last few rallies, that's for sure. But we have to put this aside and look forward to Argentina now. There are plenty of reasons to feel confident about the next rally; I know I can win it. We've reached the mid-point in the Championship and yes, I would have liked to have closed in on Seb, but it's certainly not over yet."
• 10 X Pons, Citroen

• 1 Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen *** won every stage ***
  "I pushed hard in the first two stages of the morning's loop, and even harder in the last two which were cleaner. I felt really comfortable during the morning running on the narrower Michelins. When I feel as good as I do today at the wheel of my Xsara, I can do what I want with it. And that's a terrific feeling!"
• 2 Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Ford +1m 24s
  "We've had a good battle with Carlos. We wanted to get ahead of him and I knew that if I pushed a little harder I could do that. I drove over a lot of stones but it seems that this rally is suiting me and, especially, the Focus. It seems that you have to take some risks to go fast here. It has been different to yesterday and quite rough in places. I'm happier with today but the stages were nicer to drive yesterday."
• 3 Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen +1m 32
  "My main objective is still to score points for Citroën. If I can do that and finish on the podium too, it will be a bonus."
• 4 Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot +2m 44 *** driveshaft problem ***
  "On the road section after the short SS12, I felt the car pull to one side and at first I thought it was a problem with a wheel or a tyre. But then off the line on the next stage the transmission was slipping, so I knew the problem was much more serious. The only thing I could do was lock the diffs and try to carry on, but the car was extremely difficult to drive. We did everything we could but of course we lost a lot of time so the chances to win are gone. Now we just have to concentrate on scoring the most points possible."
• 5 Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) Ford +2m 50
• 6 Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Mitsubishi +3m 17
  "Midway through SS13 the gear-shift alarm came on and then another three or four kilometers later I missed second gear and switched to the manual system. It was tricky though and we lost time because the stage was so twisty. Then we had a puncture in the same stage, although it was impossible to tell which one. There was a vibration and we changed the front right for the next stage, but it was the same situation. We ended up changing all four tires, but then had another puncture on the front right before the start of the last stage! The tires were also too hard this afternoon, even though the roads were cleaner."
• 7 Gianluigi Galli , Mitsubishi +3m 54
• 8 Markko Martin , Ford +4m 11
  "Today was fine - we had no real problems. We made a generally good tyre choice for all the stages and the car was entirely reliable. There are maybe some little things that we can change at service but basically we are concentrating on getting to the finish. There is not much else to report."
• 9 Petter Solberg , Subaru +5m 27
  "It's been a very difficult day. Running so close to the head of the field meant we had the worst possible road surface, and we simply couldn't go any faster. There was a lot of fine, sandy gravel out there and it was very, very slippery. I did my best, and the car has been perfectly reliable, but it was never going to be enough to make up for the road position. It's frustrating to be so uncompetitive on stages that I won last year - but I suppose not entirely unexpected in the circumstances. We made a few adjustments to the car set-up at the mid-point service, but somehow the package didn't come together properly. For tomorrow we'll keep fighting, keep doing our best, and aim to take away as many points as possible."
• 10 Tobias Johansson, Subaru

• 1 Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen
  "I didn't feel 100% comfortable. I was unsure of both my set-up and my driving, but at the end of the day I think this was probably due to the stages themselves as much as anything."
• 2 Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot +6.1s
  "It's been quite a good day for me, with only a small problem with the paddleshift on the steering wheel, which stopped working on SS3 and SS4. I had to use the back-up lever, which was much slower. I was also held back by my tyres, which went off from the middle of the two long 32-kilometre stages. But at the end of the day I am happy as I have set three fastest times and I am only six seconds behind Sebastien Loeb. I think tomorrow's stages will suit us better: these stages are the most difficult of the rally. The surfaces are very damaging, and our tyres should work well in these conditions. I'm going to attack!"
• 3 Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen +14s
  "I obviously benefited from a cleaner surface. I tried to keep it very clean, taking extra care through the rougher portions. The balance of my Xsara suits me perfectly. It is more to my liking, more precise than in Turkey. I feel very confident. I used the narrow tyre for both loops and that proved perfect. I am obviously delighted to be in 3rd place this evening. It's a very good position for Citroën."
• 4 Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Ford +17.7s
  "I drove hard from the first kilometre and I'm really pleased with the day. The Focus handled perfectly and I've not made any changes to the settings. Our only problem was on the last stage of the morning group when the engine twice cut out briefly. I lost no more than a couple of seconds but I couldn't find anything wrong."
• 5 Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) Ford +48.8s
• 6 Harri Rovanpera (Finland) Mitsubishi +1m 8
  "Things are going quite well, but the long stages (SS4/7) were quite tough for us. In the one this morning the handling went very strange in the last 8-10 kilometers because the tires went off, and during the same stage this afternoon it was like the dampers weren't working one hundred percent. It's difficult to know exactly what was happening, but our position is not so bad and we will keep pushing hard
  tomorrow."
• 7 H. Solberg
• 8 G. Galli
• 9 M. Martin
• 10 T. Johansson
• 11 K Sohlberg 12 Paasonen 13 Pons
• 14 P Solberg (broken driveshaft): "We've had such bad luck today and so many things
  have gone against us. Everything that we'd planned went completely wrong and I'm very disappointed. Damaging the driveshaft at such a critical part of the day, with three stages ahead, left me no opportunity to fight. It's very hard to accept, but that's just how it is. For now, I have to pick myself up, concentrate on the best possible finish and try my hardest tomorrow. This rally has shown that anything can happen, so we'll just have to see."
• 15 Vovos 16 Higgins

THU, JUNE 23, 2005, SS1

CITROEN RALLY REPORT

2005 RALLY ROUTE:

SUBARU

PEUGEOT

• GRONHOLM: "This hasn't been my most successful rally. There's no particular explanation for that. It's basically down to luck. It's an event I like, and I think it has improved with the years. I would naturally love to win the Acropolis Rally, twenty or so years after Juha Kankkunen picked up Peugeot's last success there. The competition is likely to be very fierce. My aim is above all to score points for the team."
• MARTIN: "The stages are hard-wearing and it can get very hot. You have to cover many stages on the different loops with no opportunity to change tyres, so good tyre management is crucial. So far, I've never done things by halves in Greece. It's either been very good or very bad. This year, I will mainly be looking to pick up points for the team."

CITROEN