Two weeks after their triumph in Monte Carlo, Sébastien Loeb, Citroën
and Michelin were once again the stars in snowy Sweden, taking the
driver/car/tyre combination to a grand-slam in the 2004 World Rally
Championship two winter events. In beating the local specialists in this
icy sprint across the Värmland, Loeb also makes rallying history by
becoming the first non-Nordic driver to win this highly specific event. The
Citroën-Michelin driver thwarted three-times Swedish Rally winner Marcus
Grönholm (2nd, Peugeot-Michelin) by the handsome margin of 46 seconds to
give Michelin its 21st success in Karlstad since 1979!

Sébastien Loeb's 2004 World Championship campaign has got off to a
perfect start. Still buzzing from his recent Monte Carlo success, the
Citroën-Michelin driver made it two wins from two this weekend thanks to
a faultless run in Sweden to conclude the WRC's 'winter campaign' with a
7-point margin in the Drivers' points table.

At the same time, the 29-year old Frenchman made rally history by stemming
one of the sport's longest standing records: since the inaugural Swedish
Rally in 1950, nobody from outside of Sweden of neighbouring Finland had
until now succeeded in beating the locals in this highly specialised,
high-speed snowy sprint. Today, the myth of the 'home-grown' stars'
invincibility has at last been broken.

Loeb took command on the second day of the rally when Ford-Michelin's
Markko Märtin (7th) was forced to limp through SS11 after smashing his
rear-left suspension against a rock concealed in a snow-bank. Before him,
the early pacesetter and three-times previous Swedish Rally winner Marcus
Grönholm (Peugeot-Michelin) had also fallen down the leaderboard when
his power steering failed halfway through Day 1.

Indeed, with the exception of a 360° spin early in the rally, Loeb was
the only top driver to come through the weekend without losing time with
either mechanical problems or an off. In typically mature fashion, and
despite the relatively small amount of snow and ice on the first day, he
kept his head down during the difficult conditions of the opening stages to
complete Leg 1 in 2nd place, behind Märtin.

By the following evening he was in front with a healthy margin of more than
40 seconds over Grönholm and, as snow began to fall in earnest over the
picturesque Värmland on Sunday morning, he had no difficulty controlling
from in front to collect his first non-asphalt WRC success.

Marcus Grönholm eventually took the flag in 2nd position, joined on the
podium by Subaru's Petter Solberg (3rd), while one-off Ford-Michelin
recruit Janne Tuohino paid back the confidence placed in him by the
British-based team by coming out on top in a thrilling last-day battle with
Carlos Sainz to secure 4th place. An overheating engine prompted the
Spaniard elected to ease off through the final tests to make sure of 5th
and four extra Manufacturers' points that take defending champions
Citroën-Michelin to the top of the 2004 provisional standings after two
rounds from sixteen.

Best-placed privateer was Petter Solberg's older brother Henning (6th,
Peugeot-Michelin), while Mitsubishi-Michelin's visit to Sweden with the
fledgling Lancer WRC ended in retirements for Gilles Panizzi and Kristian
Sohlberg, both with transmission problems. Freddy Loix (Peugeot-Michelin)
was the only other nominated driver to retire when his engine failed on
Saturday afternoon.

MICHELIN'S RALLY?

FOUR WINNING COMBINATIONS? In temperatures ranging from +4°C to
-5°C during the three-day Swedish Rally, and with ground conditions
evolving from Friday's gravel/ice mix to more familiar wintry surfaces on
Saturday and especially Sunday, four different Michelin tyre/stud
combinations won at least one stage during 2004's visit to the Värmland.
"The Michelin GE ice pattern recorded fastest times with both the long and
short stud options, while Markko Märtin was fastest on the first icy run
through the awesome 'Grandberget' stage with the brand new stud design
developed especially for this year's Swedish Rally," says Michelin
Competition's Rallies Manager, Aimé Chatard. "And when conditions turned
snowy on Sunday, Janne Tuohino recorded a fastest time with the Michelin GA
tyre."

THE OTHER LATIN STAR OF THE SNOW? Congratulations to Sébastien
Loeb for becoming the first non-Nordic driver to win the Swedish Rally. But
since 1979, another 'Latin' WRC star has also been winning in Sweden on a
regular basis: Bibendum!

Loeb and Citroën's success effectively takes Michelin's score to 21
outright wins from the past 25 Swedish Rallies to be organised.

WINTER CHAMPIONS? Two weeks after their triumph in Monte Carlo,
Sébastien Loeb, Citroën and Michelin were once again the stars in
snowy Sweden, taking the driver-car-tyre combination to a grand slam in the
two winter events of the 2004 World Rally Championship.

STAGE WINNERS? The winning performance of Michelin's tyre/stud
package this weekend was once again underlined by the fact that, with the
exception of Saturday evening's short spectator test, Michelin runners were
fastest over every stage - and in every type of conditions - with three
different teams and five different drivers:

Marcus Grönholm (8, Peugeot), Sébastien Loeb (4, Citroën), Carlos
Sainz (3*, Citroën), Markko Märtin (2, Ford) and Janne Tuohino (2*,
Ford).

-michelin-


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