Rally Finland (30 July - 2 August 2009) – Preview The Citroën Junior Team aims higher After a month-long summer break, the FIA World Rally Championship heads to Finland for the ninth round of the series from 30 July to 2 August. The Citroën Junior Team will be running three C4 WRCs: for Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia, Evgeny Novikov / Dale Moscatt and Conrad Rautenbach / Daniel Barritt. By improving both its performance and reliability throughout the second third of the season, the Citroën Junior Team has gone from strength to strength since April. In Argentina, Italy, Greece and Poland, the Citroën Junior Team always managed to place at least one of its C4 WRCs in the points, thanks to Sébastien Ogier, Conrad Rautenbach and Evgeny Novikov. Some fastest times from Ogier and Novikov on the world’s toughest stages have also underlined the growing potential of the Citroën Junior Team. One month after a promising performance in Poland, the Citroën Junior Team now faces a real icon in the world of rallying. Finland is well known as the spiritual home of rallying, producing six World Champions that have claimed 13 of the 30 world titles allocated since 1979. The event’s rapid stages and rollercoaster crests make it an unforgettable experience for everyone who goes there. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia and Evgeny Novikov / Dale Moscatt have been nominated to score manufacturer points for the Citroen Junior Team. Conrad Rautenbach / Daniel Barritt are entered in a third Citroën C4 WRC. In order to prepare for the quickest rally of the season, the three crews will undertake a three-day test on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to set-up their Citroën C4 WRCs and get to grips with the unique conditions of Finland. Having first sampled the Finnish stages at the wheel of a C2-R2 MAX, Sébastien Ogier will re-acquaint himself with the rapid gravel roads at the wheel of a C4 WRC: « While I’ve already been to Finland, everything’s going to be a lot quicker this year » he said. « Our test before the start of the rally should help me a lot. Our main objective is to continue building up experience by driving consistently and getting to the finish of each rally without hitting problems. » After putting in some remarkable performances throughout the season to date, Evgeny Novikov starts his very first Rally Finland with plenty of confidence. « This extremely tricky rally will be a completely new experience for us » he explained. « Our recent performances have been encouraging. I’m beginning to develop a really good feeling with the C4 WRC. Our ambition is to continue the progress we have made by setting some good stage times and getting to the finish without resorting to SupeRally. » Conrad Rautenbach will start the Rally Finland for the sixth time: his second Finnish event at the wheel of the Citroën C4 WRC. The Zimbabwean finds it impossible to hide his enthusiasm for the rally. « There’s nothing that comes close to the feeling you get when you launch a WRC car into the air for 30 or 40 metres » he said. « This is a very technical rally that you have to approach with really good pace notes. My objective is to get to the finish and set some good times along the way. If everything goes well, we should be in a good position to score points. » Three questions to … Benoit Nogier, Citroën Junior Team Manager Have the latest results led to new ambitions for the Citroën Junior Team? « It’s fair to say that the last few rallies have gone well for our entire team. When you have young drivers, you obviously always have to climb a bit of a learning curve with them. The WRC is an extremely difficult category where you have to work extremely hard to have any hope of a good result. Now, all the efforts of our crews and team are beginning to pay off. Our objective is simply to continue our progress by making the most of everything that we have learned up to this point. » How is the Citroën Junior Team shaping up prior to the start of the Rally Finland? « For the first time, we have nominated Evgeny Novikov / Dale Moscatt and Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia to score manufacturer points for the Citroën Junior Team. Conrad Rautenbach and Daniel Barritt will drive the third car. We would like all the crews to make their own individual contributions to the season. The end result in the World Rally Championship for manufacturers is the result of hard work from every single one of our crews. So it is only fair that everybody gets the chance to contribute towards it. » What are the objectives for the team on this particular event? « Rally Finland is relatively new for us, even though we ran a Citroën C4 WRC there for Conrad Rautenbach last year. Sébastien Ogier has already driven this rally in a C2-R2 MAX, but he is sure to notice a big difference with the C4 WRC. Finland is definitely one of the rallies that requires the most experience to master. The characteristics of the stages are not so different though to the ones found in Poland, where we were not that far off the pace of the top runners. We all know that this is going to be an extremely tricky event, but we remain optimistic. The objective is to get our C4 WRCs regularly into the top five stage times. It would be great to finish in the top five overall as well, but we all know that the local drivers have the habit of causing an upset on their home event. » Useful information Rally Finland (round 9/12) 30 July - 2 August Surface : Gravel Where: Jyväskylä Practical information: Rally HQ and the Media Centre are at the Jyväskylä Paviljonki. The service park is located alongside Rally HQ at the Paviljonki. There is a one-hour time difference between Finland (GMT +3) and central Europe (GMT+2). So when it is 12:00 in Finland, it is 11:00 in France. On the first day of the rally, Friday 31 July, the sun will rise at 04:39 and set at 22:06. The local currency in Finland is the Euro. Technical: The three Citroën C4 WRCs will be equipped with the engines that were already used in Greece and Poland. While Novikov will hang onto the engine he used on both events, Ogier and Rautenbach will swap engines in order to comply with the nominated driver rules. Tyres: Each crew will have 42 soft compound Pirelli Scorpion tyres at their disposal for the shakedown and the rally. The crews will be allowed to carry two spare tyres in the car, but cutting the tyres is forbidden. Reconnaissance: This will take place on Tuesday 28 July and Wednesday 29 July from 08:00 to 20:00, with two passages allowed over each special stage. Shakedown: Thursday 30 July from 08:00 to 12:00 at Laajavouri, on a 3.76-kilometre special stage located six kilometres from the service park (identical to last year). Press conference: Thursday 30 July at 13:30 in the Media Centre. Route: Total route length of 1263.20 kilometres, of which 347.12 kilometres are competitive. There are 17 special stages (9 different stages). Timing: Day 1 – 519.45 km of which 130,84 km are competitive (10 stages, 5 different stages). Thursday 30 July. Start at 18:15 – SS1: ‘Killeri 1’ (2.06 km) – Parc fermé at 19:30. Friday 31 July. Service A (06:00/15 min) – SS2: ‘Jukojärvi 1’ (22.29 km) – SS3: ‘Kruununperä 1’ (13.51 km) – SS4: ‘Mökkiperä 1’ (13.64 km) – SS5: ‘Palsankylä 1’ (13.92 km) – Regrouping (10:56/13 min) – Service B (11:09/30 min) – SS6: ‘Jukojärvi 2’ (22.29 km) – SS7: ‘Kruununperä 2’ (13.51 km) – SS8: ‘Mökkiperä 2’ (13.64 km) – SS9: ‘Palsankylä 2’ (13.92 km) – Service C (16:20/45 min) – SS10: ‘SSS Killeri 2’ (2.06 km) – Last car into parc fermé at 20:30. Day 2 - Saturday 1 August: 644.89 km of which 166.87 km are competitive (9 stages, 6 different stages). Service D (06:15/15 min) – SS11: ‘Leustu 1’ (21.35 km) – SS12: ‘Himos 1’ (20.94 km) – SS13: ‘Surkee 1’ (14.95 km) – Regrouping (10:11/13 min) – Service E (10:24/30 min) – SS14: ‘Leustu 2’ (21.35 km) – SS15: ‘Himos 2’ (20.94 km) – SS16: ‘Surkee 2’ (14.95 km) – Regrouping (14:35/13 min) – Service F (14:48/30 min) – SS17: ‘Urria’ (12.75 km) – SS18: ‘Kavala’ (10.35 km) – SS19: ‘Väärinmaja’ (29.29 km) – Service G (19:57/45 min) – Last car into parc fermé at 23:00. Day 3 - Sunday 2 August: 285.27 km of which 47.44 km are competitive (4 stages, 3 different stages). Service H (06:50/15 min) – SS20: ‘Hannula’ (10.82 km) – SS21: ‘Myhinpää 1’ (15.06 km) – Regrouping (09:46/30 min) – SS22: ‘Myhinpää 2’ (15.06 km) – SS23: ‘Ruuhimäki’ (6.50 km) – Service I (13:16/10 min) – Finish at 13:26. Final podium: Sunday 2 August, from 14:00. Final press conference: Sunday 2 August at 14:45 in the Media Centre. New for this year: In total, 11 of the 23 stages are identical to those of last year (SS1/SS2/SS5/SS6/SS9/SS10/SS11/SS14/SS17/SS20/SS23). The other stages are formed from a mixture of new roads and sections that have been used competitively before, between 2005 and 2008. Only Kavala (SS18) and Myhinpää (SS21/SS22) are completely new.