Ogier says he will take more risks

The 26-year-old Frenchman scored his first podium finish on an asphalt round of the World Rally Championship on last month's Rally Germany, but feels he has more speed to come.

The former Junior World Rally Champion returns to the Citroen Junior Team for the first ever Rally of France outside Corsica, having won the last round of the series in Japan for the Citroen Total World Rally Team.

Ogier is hoping the WRC's first visit to the Alsace region will make his job of keeping up with Sebastien Loeb slightly easier.

Ogier said: "Everybody has the same experience on this event, which should make it more close between us - I hope it's the same. I want to improve my driving on asphalt and I will take more risks and try to be closer to Sebastien [Loeb].

"But, for sure, it's going to be a difficult event with the weather changing and the road conditions ' particularly on the second loop - making it tough."

While Ogier (and Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala) could mathematically still catch Loeb for this year's title, the younger of Citroen's two Sebastiens has his sights firmly set on silver in the 2010 series.

"Second place [in the championship] would be fantastic in just my second season at this level,"said Ogier, who won in Portugal as well as Japan.

"I have been very pleased with my pace this season, but we still have three events to go and I need to conserve this position and the gap between myself and Jari-Matti [Latvala]. But, if I make one mistake, all that pressure [from Latvala] can come back."

Ogier admitted that, as a Frenchman, he was delighted to see Rally of France back on the schedule after its rotation season last year, but he accepted the fact that it was the other Sebastien who would likely get the bigger cheers.

"I think it's more Seb Loeb's home rally than mine!" he said. "But I will have some support as well. It's great to have our home rally back again."