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| Citroen |
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In only its second full season at the top level in 2004, the team won a total of seven rallies and took the manufacturers' title for the second year in succession. Sebastien Loeb took his first drivers' title with a stunning performance and a record-equalling six wins which proved that the team's Xsara is a car competent on all surfaces, whether it be asphalt, snow or fast or rough gravel. Rarely has such dominance been seen in the sport.
Prior to 1996, Citroen could boast little success in rallying's top level, preferring to focus on off-road endurance events with its ZX Rally Raid. By the mid 1990s, though, Citroen was turning its focus back to pure rallying. Early development in 1996 and 1997 focused on the ZX hatchback, which claimed the Spanish national title in 1997 at the hands of asphalt ace Jesus Puras. In 1998, though, the focus switched to the new Xsara and work was started on a World Rally Car in 1999 to follow the two-litre kit car.
After a lengthy gestation, during which an interim T4 model was campaigned, the Xsara made its WRC debut proper on the 2001 Rally Catalunya. It was an impressive debut, with Puras and Bugalski running one-two until they retired with mechanical problems. Bugalski took sixth on the gravel of Greece, but the car showed its real forte on asphalt, with Puras leading Sanremo and winning in France. Sebastien Loeb won the Super 1600 title with Citroen's Saxo and joined the team to score second in Sanremo.
In 2002, Citroen competed in just eight rounds of the WRC, focusing on development of the car away from the stages ahead of its first full-time assault in 2003. Early results were mixed, with an error from the team denying Loeb the chance to win in Monte Carlo before the benefits of testing were felt with a strong performance in the Safari - the WRC's roughest and toughest test, but it was again on asphalt that Loeb and Citroen made their presence felt, with the Frenchman winning in Germany.
For 2004, Loeb faced an all-star line-up of rivals with the big money signings of double champion Carlos Sainz and 1995 title winner Colin McRae, but the team stalwart raised his game superbly, going head-to-head with Subaru's Petter Solberg for the title after a season full of promise and helping the team to its first manufacturers' title. Citroen pledged to give Loeb the drivers' crown in 2004 and delivered in spades, with a campaign that is probably one of the most dominant in the WRC's recent history. Now it has to defend that potential in 2005.
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