Sordo replaces Pons

Recent rumours that the reigning Junior World Rally Champion Dani Sordo will drive the number two Kronos Total Citroen Xsara WRC have today (Tuesday 4 July) been confirmed. Sordo will replace Xavier Pons for the next two FIA World Rally Championship events, the OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland (11-13 August) and Neste Oil Rally Finland (18-20 August). He will therefore be the official team-mate of the World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb for these events.

Sordo will not need special permission from the FIA to miss the next two J-WRC events he was registered to enter, since a specific rule allows him to do this if he will be a 'Priority 1', or registered manufacturer team, driver for the events concerned.

No announcement has yet been made about plans for the six remaining rounds of the world championship. By regulation, Sordo must drive a 2006-specification Xsara WRC on these two events, which means a car fitted with passive front and rear differentials. He has not competed in this specification of car until now, but has frequently driven it on pre-event testing.

This move may also help answer one of rallying's recent questions: What are the performance differences between an all-active 2005 specification and a passive 2006 version? Perhaps for the first time, a true indication of the differences, if any, will be apparent.

This is the latest in a long line of achievements for the 23 year-old Spaniard, who last year became rallying's youngest driver to carry a title of World Champion.

-FIA WRC