Loeb: Finland victory among my best

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Daniel Darrall

Seven-time champion Sebastien Loeb says his victory on Neste Oil Rally Finland last week was among the best of his 66th triumphs at world level.

Citroen driver Loeb was forced to run at the head of the field on all three days of the gravel event, yet fought through to seal victory to become the first non-Nordic driver to win the high-speed gravel rally twice.

“I don’t know if it’s the best, but it’s not far from it,” said the 37-year-old French ace. “It’s an amazing feeling, Finland is always special. It’s what I always say, it’s the most difficult to win in the season. This year we had a great fight with Seb [Ogier] and Jari-Matti [Latvala] – every stage was very, very fast. Every evening they came behind, but maybe it was a good thing I had to be first on the road. Sometimes it was no problem, sometimes it dried up and there was more gravel. I didn’t know if I would win until two or three stages from the end always we had some hope, but it was big pressure and difficult. Finally, we won and it’s a great feeling.”

Loeb claimed his first win in Finland in 2008 following a close fight with Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen. However, he said winning the event for a second time this season meant even more to him.

“It was special to win in 2008 but this year I have driven the perfect rally,” said Loeb. “It was difficult sweeping the road but everything was perfect, the car the pace notes. We had no issues, we just pushed and it’s a great relief to win.”

Loeb’s co-driver Daniel Elena added: “He was fantastic, in fact he is like a good wine, the more old he gets the better he is. We have a lot of victories – winning the title in Alsace was a great moment – but winning Finland for a second time is very fantastic because we were pushing to the maximum.”

Loeb is now 27 points clear of Hirvonen in the drivers’ standings heading to ADAC Rallye Deutschland later this month. Loeb has never been defeated on the all-asphalt event.

Credit: WRC.com

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Loeb: WRC future decision imminent

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Daniel Darrall

Sebastien Loeb has revealed that his continued participation in the World Rally Championship could be decided before the next round in Germany.

Photo: D.Darrall

Loeb is on course for his eighth world crown following his fourth victory of the current campaign on Neste Oil Rally Finland last month. However, the 37-year-old has yet to ink a new deal with long-term employer Citroen, meaning his future in the sport remains in the balance.

“They [Citroen] are waiting for me so I have to decide in the next week,” Loeb told Autosport magazine in the United Kingdom. “I will decide whether I stay at Citroen or stay in the rally, but with somebody else or retire and do something else. One thing is sure, I will not stop driving.”

If Loeb did move away from Citroen then Volkswagen, which will enter the world championship in 2013 with its Polo R WRC, could prove attractive to the French ace. Loeb has previous experience of developing new machines – he played a pivotal role in the development of Citroen’s C4 and DS3 World Rally Cars – and admits to enjoying the challenge.

“Yeah, for sure, it’s also an opportunity for me, maybe,” said Loeb. “I have to think to that [and if] I really want to continue? I have been thinking about this for a few days.”

Loeb’s boss at Citroen, Olivier Quesnel, naturally wants his star driver to stay put, despite the emergence of Sebastien Ogier as a worthy future successor.

Olivier Quesnel

“I hope he will stay with us, but at the end we will see,” Quesnel told Autosport. “He has been with us for 10 years and one day he will stop. If he is not here, we will have to succeed without him. But my target is to have an agreement with Loeb and I won’t speak about drivers who might replace him.”

ADAC Rallye Deutschland takes place from 18-21 August.

credit: WRC.com

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Rally Finland 2011 – First 3 stages

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Daniel Darrall

The crazy festival that is Rally Finland kicked off this afternoon with 3 stages.

After the opening ceremony in Jyvaskyla, which is the home to rally HQ and Service. Although the service park is looking more like a Fomular 1 paddock with Fords new Hospitallity along with Citroens RedBull hospitality opposite.

The first stage of the evening and the rally was the 23km Lankamaa stage. And there was a surprise in store as the fastest driver through the stage, beating Sebastien Ogier by 0.2 was Jari Ketomaa, the fin is experienced in S2000 Fiesta, but this time in a full spec WRC car, and showing what he can do in his home country.

It was 50/50 for the Fords flying fins. Last years winner Jari Matti Latvala was up to 3rd 3.5 behind Ogier, but his team mate Mikko Hirvonen had problems. On the first stage of the evening his engine cut out, causing him to crash into a tree, where he damaged his brakes. On the following stage, the brake disk slipped off, puncturing the wheel and as a result he was one an a half minutes off the lead. Road order was determined on SS2.

And as always it’s Sebastien Loeb who will be first on the road on Friday after going fastest on SS2, with team mate Ogier behind by 1.7 seconds. Mr Ogier showing that the team rivalry is still strong between the two by saying “only one man is important for me, an that is Seb loeb”. It was Dani Sordo in the Mini who set the 2nd fastest time in the forests of Finland, and Stobart’s Mathew Wilson that set 3rd fastest. But despite this, it’s Latvala who will be 3rd on the road behind the Citroens. Setting good steady pace, he is in prime position to fight tomorrow.

It’s stage 1 winner, Jari Ketomaa in 4th, an Mini John copper works driver Dani Sordo rounding off the top 5 in terms of road position for tomorrow.

After road order decided there was still one stage to go… Which of course Loeb won by 1.1 seconds and leads the rally overall.

In PWRC Patrick Flodin leads the class, jarkko Nikara 2nd with insiderally’s feature driver Hayden Paddon in 3rd.

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WRC Finland 2011 – Preview

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Daniel Darrall

 The rally of 1000 lakes. For many it means incredible flat out speeds, cars flying through the air, going round corners at ridiculous angles an unbelievable speeds, just inches away from the tree lined, high speed gravel roads.

Photo:D.Darrall

Rally Finland is known as the “Gravel Grand Prix”, and is the fastest rally in the championship. The rally has also been known for being very difficult with almost no room for error. Its an event That is often dominated by the Scandinavians and Only 4 drivers have ever stopped the Scandinavians from winning this incredible event.

After a mid-season break. Most of which the teams have spent testing in preparation. Rally Finland is back to kick start the 2nd half of the 2011 season.

Photo: D.Darrall

And one of thoughs few non-Scandinavian drivers that have won the event is the Frenchman and 7 times champion, Sebastien Loeb. He won here back in 2008 and will looking to win the event again for the second time. He will of course have his team mate Sebastien Ogier to contend with, a man who Loeb has been battling with for most of the season in what is already a heated inner-team rivalry.

But the favorites for this event will be Ford and their two Flying Fins. Mikko Hirvonen has won here before, and back in 2010 he was set to win the event for the second time. But on the Urria stage, on what Hirvonen described as his favourite corner, he landed heavily and the car speared off into the side of the road where it then rolled at high speed, several times up a hill in the middle of the stage. Not only was it the end of his Focus but also the end his rally. It was then infact his team mate, Jari- Matti Latvala who took the win on the incredible event. Latvala will be gunning for the victory once more this weekend on his 100th WRC rally.

Petter Solberg will be doing his best to get that long awaited victory, and he has shown strong pace here in Finland in the past, but can the privateer driver go one better than the factory boys, it still remains to be seen.

The Mini John Copper works WRC team will be back, after their debut back in Sardinia, and will be hitting the Finnish gravel, and sometimes flying over it. With team drivers Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke, comparing their times against the worlds best in preparation for when they officially enter the WRC next year.

Kimi Raikkonen will have high expectations for his home event, although still new to the world stages, he will be concentrating more on keeping it out of the ditched and hard forest trees. Novikov will be flying in Finland once again, although probably not in the same way he did in 2009 when he almost attempted a back flip in his C4 on one of the famous big jumps. Henning Solberg and Mad Ostberg will be looking for some good results for the stobart team and aiming to break into the top 5 if any of the ‘fast five’ make a mistake.

The big news in the service park is centred around Volkswagen’s 2013 entry into the WRC. VW will be running two S2000 Skodas for a sort of, ‘Driver shoot out’ in their search for their driver line up, which this weekend begins with Joonas Lindroos and Andreas Mikkelsen.

In the PWRC, kiwi driver and leader Hayden Paddon will return to Finland. This time in his Symtech run Subaru and is looking for nothing short of a podium place finish. “getting on the podium is a minimum, of course we’ll be trying for more”.

This years rally Finland is once again based in the town of Jyvaskyla. There will be 22 stages with a total competitive distance of 314.39km joined with long road sections.

The rally kicks off on Thursday evening with 3 stages, the first being the 23km Lankamaa. The main part of the action kicks off on Friday morning with the 20.34km Hassi stage to start, with a further 7 stages. On Saturday, the final day of the rally, will contain 11 stages, starting with SS12 Leustu 21.35km and will end saturday evening with a 4km Powerstage in Laajavuori, where as always on the Power stage, bonus points will be up for grabs.

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