The opening leg of the 2008 Swedish Rally saw Citroën C4 WRC crew Dani Sordo and Marc Martí complete today's stages in 7th place in the classification for drivers eligible to score Manufacturers' points. An 'off' on the day's third test put an end to the run of
Sebastien Loeb and
Daniel Elena who were unhurt in the incident.
With a menu of 122.14km of stages, the first day turned out to be something of an awesome challenge for competitors. In addition to the two attempts at the Karlstad super-special on Thursday evening and then again today, the programme essentially comprised a loop of three stages to be contested twice each. This was the first time for some years that these tests, which took place in conditions marked by melting ice, had featured on the event.
It was just as Citroën Sport's engineers and technicians were settling into their allocated spot at the mid-leg remote service park in Sunne that reports that the Citroën C4 WRC of
Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena had stopped 19km into SS4 came through. Although they lost time, the defending World Champions succeeded in completing the stage and reaching Sunne where they related their misadventure.
Citroen Sport
