Dani Sordo

Dani Sordo

Sordo in 2014
Personal information
Nationality	Spanish
Born	May 2, 1983 Torrelavega, Cantabria
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2003–present
Teams	Citroën, Mini, Hyundai
Rallies	140
Championships	0
Rally wins	1
Podiums	40
Stage wins	155
Total points	869
First rally	2003 Rally Catalunya
First win	2013 Rallye Deutschland
Last win	2013 Rallye Deutschland

Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born May 2, 1983 in Torrelavega, Cantabria) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rally of Germany.

Career

Sordo began in motocross when he was 12 years old, but also experienced success in hillclimbing, karting and touring cars. He first drove in a World Rally Championship event at the Rally Catalunya, the Spanish round of the series, in 2003 in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, finishing 18th overall. He won the Spanish Junior Championship that year, and retained the title in 2004, while also accumulating further international experience at the WRC events in Argentina (retired), Germany (19th), France (13th) and Spain (20th).

In this last event, he switched from the Lancer Evo to a Citroën C2 S1600, and for 2005 he committed to a full season driving the C2 in the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) with Belgium's Kronos Racing team. He also switched co-drivers, now being paired with Marc Martí, the former co-driver of double World Champion Carlos Sainz. Victories in Sardinia, Finland, Germany and Spain brought him the junior world title.

Sordo driving a Citroën Xsara WRC at the 2006 Rally Japan.

These showings earned Sordo a subsequent drive in a Kronos Total Citroën-prepared Xsara World Rally Car as the team's third driver in the 2006 season, although the initial plan - latterly dropped - was for the Spaniard to combine a piecemeal World Rally Car programme with a simultaneous defence of the JWRC title in the C2.

His early results though, including successive podiums at the Rally Catalunya and the Rallye de France, proved sufficient to not only expand his complement of contested events, but also ensure promotion to the second driver berth from the Rallye Deutschland onwards, alongside Sébastien Loeb and ahead of team-mate Xavier Pons. Sordo finished the 2006 season with four podium places, 49 points and a fifth overall in the drivers' world championship.

Sordo driving a Citroën C4 WRC at the 2010 Rally Finland.

Citroën Sport then announced that Sordo will be their second driver for their 2007 season works team return. Sébastien Loeb would lead the team's push to win another title, this time using the C4 instead of Xsara.^[1] Sordo started the season with a second place at the 2007 Monte Carlo Rally and went on to finish on the podium six more times; in Portugal, Italy, Spain, where he also led a WRC event for the first time in his career, France, Japan and Ireland. With 65 points, he placed fourth overall in the drivers' championship, behind his teammate Loeb and BP Ford World Rally Team's Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen.

In the 2008 season, after only three points in the first three events, Sordo finished third in Argentina and second in Jordan. On July 12, Sordo won the SM O.K. Auto-Ralli, the fifth round of the Finnish Rally Championship. Initially, he only planned to use the event as a test session when Citroën decided to competitively enroll him in the event to build confidence in preparation for the 2008 Rally Finland. Sordo's win marks his first in a WRC car.^[2] Citroën is also believed to have been testing out new parts at this event as a few slight modifications could be noticed in a few cars.

Back in the World Rally Championship, Sordo took fourth place in Finland and went on to drive his C4 WRC to three consecutive runner-up finishes behind his teammate Loeb; in Germany, New Zealand and Spain. With these results, Citroën passed Ford and took a 27-point lead in the manufacturers' world championship. At the season-ending Wales Rally GB, Loeb and Sordo secured the team their fourth manufacturers' crown by finishing first and third, respectively. Sordo finished a career-best third in the drivers' standings.

In the 2010 WRC season Sordo scored a 4th place in the opening round Rally Sweden, while he scored no points in the following round in Rally Mexico. In the third round in Rally Jordan he scored another 4th place, in the Turkish Rally he was forced to retire, while in Rally New Zealand he scored 5th place and in the Rally of Portugal he scored his first podium finish of the year. In Rally Bulgaria, Sordo finished in second place behind his team leader Loeb, giving his Citroen team their first one-two finish of the season. However, he was replaced by Sebastien Ogier for the remaining gravel events of the season in the works team, and was demoted to the Citroen Junior Team alongside Kimi Räikkönen. In Rally Finland Sordo finished 4th and from Rally Deutschland onwards Dani Sordo swapped his co-driver to Diego Vallejo. In Rally Deutschland itself Sordo scored another 2nd place podium. In the following Rally in Japan he finished 4th and in Rally Alsace 2nd again. At the end of the season he had 63 points using the old scoring system in 5th place. For the 2011 season Sordo joined MINI in their first year in the WRC, securing 2 podiums with 3rd in Germany and 2nd in France, respectively. He also finished 4th in Spain and 6th in the first round for MINI in Sardegnia. For 2012 he continues his partnership with MINI for their first full season beginning with the Monte Carlo Rally, where he took his first podium for 2012 finishing in second place. However, in Sweden he went off road and scored no points. Sordo did not compete in the Rally Mexico due to MINI separating from Prodrive. A round later, however, after some more than 100 modifications to the MINI, Sordo won 6 stages including the power stage. Sordo was set to replace Ford's number one driver Jari-Matti Latvala in Argentina, after the Finn was injured in practice for the upcoming event, the only event he drove for Ford, after which he competed in New-Zealand, Germany, France and Spain for Prodrive as the team tried to focus on the sealed surfaces.

Besides competing in the WRC for 2012, Sordo participated in the IRC in the Tour de Corse in a MINI. He won the event and took his maiden win in the IRC championship. After 2 seasons in the Prodrive (MINI) Team, Sordo rejoined Citroen for 2013 driving the second DS3 WRC.

At 2013 Rallye Deustchland, Sordo was in a stable third position in the second of three days, but after first placed Jari-Matti Latvala and second placed Thierry Neuville both left the road, Sordo found himself in the lead, with the Belgian just 0.8 seconds behind him at the end of the day, with just two stages to go. He eventually managed to hold on to first place and finally, after a nail-biting Power Stage and at his 106th WRC start, Dani Sordo won a WRC round.

Since the 2014 season Sordo moved to the new Hyundai Motorsport team and drives the second car in selected events.^[3]

Sordo driving a Hyundai i20 WRC at the 2015 Rally de Portugal.

Sordo driving a Hyundai i20 WRC at the 2016 Rally de Portugal.

WRC Victories

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	31. ADAC Rallye Deutschland	2013	Carlos del Barrio	Citroën DS3 WRC

Career results

Complete WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
2003	Dani Sordo	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII	MON	SWE	TUR	NZL	ARG	GRC	CYP	GER	FIN	AUS	ITA	FRA	ESP 18	GBR			NC	0
2004	Dani Sordo	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII	MON	SWE	MEX	NZL	CYP	GRE	TUR	ARG Ret	FIN	GER 19	JPN	GBR	ITA	FRA 13			NC	0
		Citroën C2 S1600															ESP 20
2005	Dani Sordo	Citroën C2 S1600	MON 15	SWE	MEX	NZL	ITA 17	CYP	TUR	GRE Ret	ARG	FIN 15	GER 13	GBR	JPN	FRA 15	ESP 12	AUS	NC	0
2006	Kronos Total Citroën WRT	Citroën Xsara WRC	MON 8	SWE 16	MEX 4	ESP 2	FRA 3	ARG 5	ITA 3	GRE 6	GER 2	FIN Ret	JPN DSQ	CYP Ret	TUR 7	AUS 23	NZL 5	GBR 7	5th	49
2007	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C4 WRC	MON 2	SWE 12	NOR 25	MEX 4	POR 3	ARG 6	ITA 3	GRE 24	FIN Ret	GER Ret	NZL 6	ESP 2	FRA 3	JPN 2	IRE 2	GBR 5	4th	65
2008	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C4 WRC	MON 11	SWE 6	MEX 16	ARG 3	JOR 2	ITA 5	GRE 5	TUR 4	FIN 4	GER 2	NZL 2	ESP 2	FRA Ret	JPN DSQ	GBR 3		3rd	65
2009	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C4 WRC	IRE 2	NOR 5	CYP 4	POR 3	ARG 2	ITA 22	GRE 11	POL 2	FIN 4	AUS 3	ESP 2	GBR 3					3rd	64
2010	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C4 WRC	SWE 4	MEX 14	JOR 4	TUR Ret	NZL 5	POR 3	BUL 2		GER 2		FRA 2	ESP 3					5th	150
	Citroën Junior Team									FIN 5		JPN 4			GBR 5
2011	Mini WRC Team	Mini John Cooper Works WRC	SWE	MEX	POR	JOR	ITA 6	ARG	GRE	FIN Ret	GER 3	AUS	FRA 2	ESP 4	GBR 20				8th	59
2012	Mini WRC Team	Mini John Cooper Works WRC	MON 2	SWE Ret	MEX														11th	35
	Prodrive WRC Team					POR 11		GRE	NZL 6	FIN	GER 9	GBR	FRA Ret	ITA	ESP 9
	Ford World Rally Team	Ford Fiesta RS WRC					ARG Ret
2013	Abu Dhabi Citroën Total WRT	Citroën DS3 WRC	MON 3	SWE Ret			ARG 9						FRA 2						5th	123
	Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT				MEX 4	POR 12		GRE 2	ITA 4	FIN 5	GER 1	AUS		ESP Ret	GBR 7
2014	Hyundai Shell World Rally Team	Hyundai i20 WRC	MON Ret	SWE	MEX	POR Ret	ARG Ret	ITA	POL	FIN	GER 2	AUS	FRA 4	ESP 5	GBR				10th	40
2015	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai i20 WRC	MON 6	SWE WD	MEX 5	ARG 5	POR 6	ITA 20	POL 10	FIN 11	GER 4		FRA 7	ESP 3	GBR 4				8th	89
	Hyundai Motorsport N											AUS 8
2016	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai NGi20 WRC	MON 6		MEX 4	ARG 4	POR 4	ITA 4			GER 2	CHN C	FRA 7	ESP 2	GBR 6				5th	130
	Hyundai Motorsport N			SWE 6					POL Ret	FIN WD						AUS 5

* Season still in progress.

JWRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pos.	Points
2005	Dani Sordo	Citroën C2 S1600	MON 4	MEX	ITA 1	GRE Ret	FIN 1	GER 1	FRA 2	ESP 1	1st	53

Footnotes

1. "Citroën reward rising star Sordo". BBC Motorsport News. 2006-09-05. Retrieved 6 September 2006.
2. "Sordo takes first win with C4 in Finland". Crash.net. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
3. WRC.com - Hyundai reveals its driver line-up Retrieved on 10 December 2013

External links

• Official website