Sebastien Ogier happy with experience gained on the Ulster Rally 2008
Seb Ogier, who was subbing for the injured Simon Jean-Joseph, got some valuable experience and a good result on the Ulster Rally 2008. Driving a PH Sport Citroen C2R2 max Ogier finished a creditable 13th o/a and was top 2wd competitor as well as winning his class by a signifigant margin.
PH Sport have been using the C2-R2 Max on European events this year as a promotional tool for customers. The car is closer in performance terms to S1600 cars and is said to have great handling characteristics. Ogier put these characteristics to good use on the Ulster.
Ogier on his new co-driver for the event and the terrain in Ulster to wrc.com:
Everything fell perfectly into place. I wasn’t at all worried about how long it would take for me to get up to speed with Jack. I knew already that he was a consummate professional, so one stage is all it would take. Afterwards I was able to find the right pace on this very specialised terrain, even though a few of the bumps, which are not obvious at slow speed during the recce, caught me by surprise a bit.”
Seb talked to wrc.com about his performance and experience gained from the rally:
Leg two got underway in dry weather once again. On roads that were a little bit dirtier than the ones we had experienced the day before, we maintained our pace in order to be sure of keeping the two-wheel drive lead. When the rain came, we adjusted the set-up. The car reacted perfectly to the changes that we made, working extremely well even when there was a lot of water. I wanted to use this rally to improve my overall experience in a variety of conditions and I certainly got what I wished for! We can draw many positive conclusions from this event.”
The rally will have been ideal experience for Rally Ireland 2009 where Ogier will either be in the JWRC category or even possibly in a C4 WRC as part of a Citroen Sport B team.
Olivier Quesnel has played down speculation about Ogier making the step up to World Rally Car machinery next year, but with Ogier already conducting a C4 test in private and contesting WRC events outside the JWRC calendar, it would appear that Citroen are keen for their protege to step up sooner rather than later. Perhaps we could see him in a C4 for Rally GB this year?
Ogier during his most recent JWRC win in Germany:
Image: RallyBuzz
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
No comments yet.