Breen wants no “hiccups” on first leg of Rally Turkey 🇹🇷

Round ten of the 2018 season will see the C3 WRC experience Turkey for the first time, a country where its elder sister — the Xsara WRC — secured the brand’s first win on gravel in the WRC and which will be hosting a world rally championship round for the seventh time. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT will once again look to Craig Breen — Scott Martin, Mads Østberg — Torstein Eriksen and Khalid Al Qassimi — Chris Patterson to defend its chances.

The team has certainly prepared well for the rally with a three-day pre-event test in the Aude, reputed to have some of the roughest roads among the commonly-used test bases. Whilst Mads Østberg and Craig Breen will be attempting to make the most of their favourable starting position on the opening leg (eighth and ninth in the running order respectively) as they look to secure the team’s fourth podium of the season, Khalid Al Qassimi will be making his third appearance of 2018 in the C3 WRC and will be determined to pick up his pace in the car during the weekend. Following a city-centre super-special stage on Thursday evening, the serious stuff starts on Friday with Çetibeli, which, at over thirty-eight kilometres, is the longest stage of the weekend. No messing about here, the crews will be straight into action at a race that promises to produce some surprises…

Team Principal, Pierre Budar said:

“This rally is new for everyone, so all the teams and crews will start off on an equal footing. It looks set to be a very open race. Reliability might be one of the key factors this weekend, but we know we can count on the strength of our C3 WRC. Although we have a solid base, we’ll need to adapt quickly to the conditions in any adjustments to the set-up, whilst the crews will have to be efficient when taking pace notes during recce so they can tackle the first pass on the stages with confidence.”

Craig Breen said:

“The aim is really to get through the opening leg without any hiccups. If we manage to do that, we should be right up there, in the mix and well placed for the rest of the rally. It’s difficult to take any real information from the on-board footage recorded by the organiser in a production car. One thing is sure, however: the course looks very interesting, with a good variety of roads, some narrow, technical and rough, others much quicker.”

Mads Østberg said:

“We’re expecting it to be hot this weekend. It’s going to be a technically-difficult, demanding rally for the cars and that’s what we prepared for during our pre-event test in the Aude. I’m feeling pretty confident because I always produce decent performances on this kind of surface. And the C3 WRC is even more efficient and easier to drive than it was in Sardinia, which is the last event contested on similar types of road. We’re also going to be able to use some of the things we learned in Finland on this surface.”

Khalid Al Qassimi said:

“I’m delighted to be back behind the wheel of my C3 WRC, especially at a new event. It’s always exciting to contest brand new stages for the first time, especially as we’re expecting fairly difficult conditions. I’ve always felt comfortable at events like this. I have some good memories of the Acropolis Rally, for example. It’s always a question of finding the right balance between pushing and looking after the car.”

(Words and text by Citroën Racing)