Present on a Citroën C3 R5, Pepe Lopez showed a high level of performance during the Tierras Altas de Lorca rally, held in Andalusia in southern Spain. With 58 entries including 12 R5s at the start, the first round of the Spanish land and mixed championship is full.
SUMMARY OF THE ALTAS TIERRAS ALTAS RALLY OF LORCA 2019
Very quickly, Pepe Lopez (Citroën C3 R5) and Xavi Pons (Skoda Fabia R5) broke away in the lead and made each other go for it. The Citroën Racing driver signed the scratch on the special stages (ES) 1 and 3 while Xavi Pons responded in ES 2 and 4. Halfway through the race, the latter led by only 6.8s ahead of Pepe Lopez (Citroën C3 R5) and 21.9s over Pardo Siota (Skoda Fabia R5).
On the second part of the race, we take the same ones and start again. Pepe Lopez signed the scratch on the ES6 while Xavi Pons won the ES5 and 7. Pepe Lopez lost 3 minutes in stage 7 after a puncture and dropped to 5th place, Pardo, Gorka and Villanueva taking advantage of the Citroën Racing driver's misfortunes to each gain a place in the overall classification. Confirming its excellent performance on land, the Citroën C3 R5 won the last two ES (ES8/ES9) and climbed to 4th place overall and on the podium of the mixed championship.
SUMMARY OF THE CITROËN RACING TEAM (PEPE LOPEZ, C3 R5)
Find below the video of the Citroën Racing Spain team during the Tierras Altas rally in Lorca 2019.