How power is shifting at Citroen

It's never a bad day on a round of the World Rally Championship when you have to stop and fill your car with fuel for the second time. It means you've broken free from the press office. It means you're living Jean Todt's distance dream. It means the adventure is back. Just for a day.

Day one of the Acropolis Rally was one of the finest in the careers of Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson. They took the Greek roads and shook them hard, wringing every second from them in their Citroen DS3 WRC to build a lead of close to a minute. At that moment, it truly looked like Solberg's long wait for a 14th victory could be coming to an end.

Solberg and Patterson had an incredible first day in Greece © LAT

Knowing that something special was going to happen that day meant the trip through the centre of Greece up to Kamena Vourla was worth it. But we made it even more worthwhile by tagging on a stop to talk to the drivers after the first stage before picking our way through Rengini (albeit the wrong way) before arriving at remote service beside the Aegean.

Solberg and Patterson were given plenty of time to plan their attack as the road section went from sea level to near mountain top and back down again a couple of times. The route from Loutraki hauled its way up Mount Gerania (the mountain which presents a dominant backdrop to the town) and down to the shores of the Korinthiakos Gulf before threading its way between more mountains (Pateras and Kitheronas) and out onto the baked flat plains around Livadia. The journey was unbelievable. How could anybody have taken the motorway instead of this? The scenery was outstanding and the road certainly kept you busy.

Having spoken to the drivers at the start of Elatia, we decided to take the direct route and drive the wrong way through the Rengini stage.

And, once again, driving a stage hammers home just what heroic sorts these boys are. Having moaned about the way the road was cleaning through the first stage of the morning, I thought it only right that we do our bit to help Sebastien Loeb out by trying to sweep some of the loose from the top of stage four. Admittedly, I did feel a bit bad, given that we were at the wheel of a new Ford Focus loaned to us by the Ford PR team of Mark Wilford and Georgina Finney. I was sure they'd understand. And anyway, it was important to sample a bit of sweeping ourselves.

It was terrible. But the worst thing was the absolute unpredictability from one corner to the next of what the grip level would be. As I mentioned, we were going the wrong way through the stage, so what was uphill for us would be downhill all the way to the finish for the boys. Despite time running out - and a promise to the Greek policeman that we would drive straight through - we turned around and did a mile or so in the right direction. It was fantastic. There was a bit of everything in there, super-quick straight, blind crest, off-camber braking into tightening apexes, all with traction levels switching from Teflon-slick to abrasive bedrock.

Every time I drive a section of stage like this, I confidently predict - usually with a knowing nod of the head - that one of them will be caught out by this corner or that left-over-crest. And this time I was even more confident, given that most of them were making new pace notes for the stage.

Loeb and co got to drive on some sensational roads on the Acropolis © LAT

And, once again, I was completely wrong. Once again, my snapshot of the drivers' world had left my jaw on the floor and my mind full of massive respect. They raced these roads and won. What was borderline insanity to me made complete sense to them.

And it made most sense of all to Solberg. Nobody was quicker than him the right way through Rengini.

Unfortunately, reality returned after a quick Greek salad - and the reality was the return journey on the motorway and a late night catching up with the typing which I should have been doing through the day. I didn't care about the late night. For a day, we'd been back on a real rally: plotting our way as we went, getting lost in the olive groves; finding goats and bathtubs where you'd least expect them, talking to a man who drove a Ferrari to a Formula 1 World Championship on a petrol station forecourt festooned with bits of broken Fiat and fag packets, and we'd had a reasonably balanced discussion over the precise meaning of 'road closed' with a couple of members of the local constabulary.

Day one in Greece was a fine day for Solberg and for AUTOSPORT.

I was full of hope for the Norwegian on Friday night. I truly believed he could hold on and take that shockingly elusive 14th win. I mean, he had almost a minute over everybody.

And then came Saturday and Sebastien Ogier.

Ogier was just as impressive as his fellow Citroen driver had been 24 hours earlier. Running fourth on the road behind Solberg, Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen, Ogier made the most of the cleaner line to swipe all but five seconds of the Norwegian's advantage by lunchtime. Ogier's morning was the headline, but for those looking closer, Loeb's efforts were just as - if not more - praiseworthy. Running two cars ahead, Loeb was just 10s slower than his team-mate in what would have been considerably worse conditions.

As the factory Citroens eased their way clear at the front of the field, the talk of tactics returned. And, for the first time, this was a straight tactical scrap between the two works DS3 WRC drivers.

Fifteen seconds separated Ogier and Loeb going into the final stage of Saturday. Solberg was a further seven down. Ogier said he wanted a lead of 20s before Sunday and if he couldn't get that, he'd drop behind Loeb.

Ogier dropped back to get ahead and win © LAT

Do what?

He - Ogier - would drop behind Loeb.

Loeb had seen and heard enough. Loeb arrived in Greece 13 points in the lead of the World Rally Championship and seemingly on course for an eighth straight title, probably handing Citroen its seventh piece of season-long silverware from nine years, and now this?

Where was the respect he'd earned from the team? Did the position of team leader mean nothing to these people? And where was Dani Sordo when you needed him?

In the heat of the moment, Loeb ranted. He stared straight down the barrel of France Television's camera and told his countrymen how his employer had made him laugh. Just as toes were beginning to curl, he took another breath and admitted that Saturday evening had at least cleared up the question of number one status in the team; according to this Sebastien, it belonged to the other one.

Seven days after he'd had to front up to a nation demanding to know why three Peugeot 908s weren't good enough to stop one Audi R18 at Le Mans, Citroen team principal (and grand fromage of all things motorsport in the PSA Group) Olivier Quesnel had to explain himself for a second time.

Since his entirely out-of-character strop, Loeb had calmed down and explained himself. The split times were broken on Ogier's car, so the team took a manual split in the middle of the stage and then - seeing that Ogier wasn't going to make a 20s lead over Loeb - told him the time he needed to drop into second place, forcing Loeb to sweep the road on the final day.

Loeb was frustrated that the team had actively helped Ogier to put him in a weaker position. This had never happened to him before. But it's certain to happen again.

It was amusing to hear Ogier squirm at the end of the Nea Politia stage on Saturday night. The last 13 minutes of his life had been run in the dark - and the Frenchman was clearly keen to keep the outside world in a similar position.

Loeb was happy enough to shed some light on the deal.

Close to midnight, an hour or so after Loeb had said his bit, I saw him heading into the team hotel. I chased him. He saw me and headed for the revolving door. Out the other side, the lift door was open, his escape set. But he waited.

He talked briefly about his frustration, explaining the situation despite the lateness of the hour. Typically, he ended the chat with a smile and promise of a big push in the morning.

Quesnel was forced to explain himself over the Loeb v Ogier battle © LAT

The trouble is for Loeb, time's a changing at Citroen. And the current difficulties the team are facing are thanks largely to Ford team director Malcolm Wilson. Last year, Wilson made a big-money offer to Ogier to bring him from Paris to Cumbria. Crucially, he offered Ogier number one status to go with the cash. So, when Ogier went back to Quesnel, he wanted the same. And Citroen agreed. And this Sebastien versus Sebastien story began.

In explaining his tied hands, Quesnel pointed to the contract and asked what else he could do.

The rewards of having two of the fastest drivers in one team are obvious, but the risk is all there for the world to see. Shunning Ogier for another year of Sordo would probably have garnered another Loeb title and quite possibly another cup for Citroen, but that was the old guard. That was Guy Frequelin's Citroen. This is Quesnel's team now and, understandably, he wants to make it his own. But it's a risky business.

And Greece last week was just the beginning of what could be an intriguing second half of the season.