The end of the 44thedition of the Rally Catalunya, round 12 of the 2008 World Rally Championship, put the finishing touches to Citroën Total’s emphatic domination which produced a superb one-two finish, the team’s third in a row, and also its third on the Spanish round.

Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena led from flag to flag to extend their lead in the provisional Drivers’ championship order, while team-mates Dani Sordo and Marc Martíwere perfectly on the pace to secure second spot with their Citroën C4 WRC. The result gives Citroën a 27-point advantage in the Manufacturers’ standings, a fitting way to mark the 40th anniversary celebrations ofthe French firm’s partnership in motor sport with Total.

The final day’s programme featured 93.88km of competitive action which took the form of two attempts at aloop of three stages totalling 46.94km. As announced by the Météo France Sports technician, the sun wasjust peeking through as the two C4s pulled out of the Salou service park first thing this morning.

It was much higher in the sky and far warmer when Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Martíparked up their respective cars for the final time under the awnings of Citroën Sport’s facilities where theywere given a hero’s welcome by everyone in the squad after clinching the one-two finish that never lookedlike escaping them all weekend.

“This is our third consecutive one-two of 2008, which is immensely satisfying,"smiled Olivier Quesnel at thefinish."What I particularly appreciate about this result is the way it was obtained. Our two C4s were neverdislodged from the top of the leaderboard and were remarkably reliable throughout, while the mechanics didan impeccable job tending to them over the three days.

Sébastien and Daniel put in a perfect run, pullingclear initially and then controlling from in front. It was a polished performance, too, from Dani and Marc whosuperbly defended second spot. They were in complete control in relation to their rivals in third place. This isalso a very positive outcome for Citroën in both championships, and exactly the sort of weekend I would loveto see repeated in a week’s time when we move on to Corsica.”

The same sense of a job well done could be detected in the declaration of Sébastien Loeb:"It won’t surpriseanyone to learn that I am delighted with this win,"he beamed after adding a fourth victory to his record onthis event which takes his personal total to nine WRC wins in 2008 and 45 in total."The Riudecanyes andSanta Marina stages we contested today were quite similar to those of the first two days, but the Serrad’Almos test was different from the others. It was narrow, the asphalt was in a fairly poor state and it wasquite bumpy.

We took special care not to pick up a puncture, just as we did all weekend, and that was one ofthe main concerns on this rally. In order to make the most of our Pirelli Pzero WRC Hard tyres, I had to adaptthe way I drove to manage their rate of wear. But we didn’t make any mistakes and our C4 WRC performedimpeccably from start to finish, and that has taken us a step loser to both world titles, although there’s still along way to go…”

Yet again, Dani and Marc joined their team-mates on the podium in second place and were visibly equallythrilled with the result."This is our third consecutive silver medal on our home round and the third time wehave contributed to a one-two finish here for Citroën. I would obviously love to win this event one day, but Iam happy with today’s outcome,"said Dani."It was a superb weekend for us, and there was much lesscorner-cutting this time round compared with previous years.

We profited from Friday’s run to make someset-up changes to adapt the car to our tyres and I then fell into a quick but safe rhythm which enabled us todefend second spot. Our C4 was awesomely competitive all the way to the finish and monopolising the toptwo positions today is a great reward for everyone in the team. It has enabled Citroën to close in on the titleand we will do all we can to reproduce the same result in Ajaccio next weekend!”