Citroën Racing team principal Pierre Budar has set Stéphane Lefebvre the target of winning the WRC 2 title as the Frenchman prepares to debut the C3 R5 at next week’s Corsica linea – Tour de Corse (5-8 April).

Lefebvre has been involved in the development of the C3 R5 and Budar hopes he can dethrone reigning champion Pontus Tidemand to end Skoda Motorsport’s run of back-to-back driver titles.



“The target we have set Stéphane Lefebvre in entering him in WRC 2 in the C3 R5 is to win the championship, in order to show the potential of the car, both in terms of performance and reliability on a wide variety of surfaces in what is a highly competitive series,” Budar said.

Lefebvre, a former junior world champion, has been preparing for Corsica by testing the C3 on the island, as well as sharpening up his competition skills by winning Rallye Le Touquet earlier in the month in a Citroën DS 3 WRC.



Budar said: “He has two undeniable assets, starting with the fact that he participated in a large part of the development testing. He knows the car well and will be sharp coming into the rallies, especially as each time, he will have a pre-event test. He also has experience of the events since he contested most of them last year in the WRC.”



After Tour de Corse, Lefebvre is set to compete at Vodafone Rally de Portugal and Rally Italia Sardegna with Citroën Racing making a decision on further rallies later in the year.



Lefebvre’s car will be run by PH Sport, the team that engineered Robert Kubica to the WRC 2 title in 2013. Later in the season, Simone Tempestini will drive a PH Sport C3 R5 for three rallies as a reward for his results in a DS 3 R5 last year.

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