This weekend will mark the final outing of who is one of the Greatest Drivers of all time. Sebastien Loeb.
Below is a feature Video by WRC.com which highlights Seb Loeb’s WRC Career, in which he won nine WRC Driver Championship Titles in a row taking nearly 900 stage wins and 78 WRC wins.
As it stands, it’s 2-1 to Sebastien Loeb this year. With Loeb only doing 4 events, it doesn’t give his Arch rival Sebatien Ogier much chance to prove himself against the 9 times Champion. But in Alsace, on Loeb’s last WRC outing It’s the war of the Sebastien’s!
Photo: D.Darrall
This is the Rally that fans have been waiting for. Ever since that big fall out in Germany 2011, between Super Seb Loeb and the young contender, who was able to beat the driving god. Its been war. And after 9 World titles for Loeb. And a year out for Ogier to develop the fastest car in the current championship. It’s the last chance for two of best drivers in the world to prove who’s best. This weekend is all about Ogier Vs Loeb.
This weekend will be Ogier’s chance to wrap up the championship which he missed out of in Rally Australia a few weeks ago. But it’s not just the title Ogier wants this year, he wants to level the score with the best driver the sport has ever seen. Its something he has been doing since he was team mates with Loeb Back in Citroen in 2011, when their rivalry caused Ogier and the then team boss Quensel to leave the team.
Photo:D.Darrall
Now in different teams Ogier says he has only one target this weekend. “I will go there for the victory” But had it gone differently, we wonder if his team boss would have been able to calm Ogier and to focus him on the championship rather than Loeb.
Volkswagen Team boss Capito said: “If our lead was less than this, then we might have had to have some tough words for Seb [Ogier]. In France, the focus could have been on the manufacturers’ championship – and we agreed at the start of the season that we would focus on this and not on beating Loeb on this rally. But now, things are looking good. I realise the result in Australia meant Seb missed his first title, but, to be honest, it made the manufacturers’ championship look stronger for us – this is the result I prefer!”
Photo:D.Darrall
Ogier questioned whether Capito would really have tried to slow him down. “It would have been frustrating to be in that position and I’m not sure he could really ask me that this year – maybe he can more ask my team-mate for that,” Ogier said. “At the moment, I have done a good job for them and brought a lot of points to the team and they have to trust me. I’m sure he would have given me the chance to do it.”
But now with the championship pretty much spoken for (Ogier just needs 1 point more to claim the title in the next 3 events) it will be a win either way for the younger Seb. That means it will be an all out fight for not just the victory but also for the reputation of being the better driver. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. And that is exactly what Ogier will be trying to do this weekend. “The only point which would make a bad situation for me, of course, [is] if Seb Loeb wins the rally and I got trouble or something. Then it will be a bit of a shadow on my championship against his victory again and I think I don’t deserve that.”
Photo: D.Darrall
Loeb’s last WRC was back Rally Argentina when he took his 2nd win of the year. And the last time the 9 times champ drove on a pure asphalt rally was on this very rally 12 months ago. Since then the Frenchman has been busy doing circuit racing and developing a Citroen WTCC car for next year. But despite that time away from his factory Citroen DS3 WRC, Ogier thinks Loeb will still be at the top of his game in France.
Photo:D.Darrall
“I know he is able to go straight to top speed. He has been out of rallying for some months, but every week he is still racing and driving cars – I’m sure he is still in the rhythm of the competition. Tarmac is really his surface and he knows this rally very well, I’m sure he will be there at the front.”
For this years edition of Rally France the Power stage, normally run as the final stage of the rally, will make up stage 1 of the event. “It’s kind of strange that the first special stage is so important,” says the Volkswagen driver. “For me, the perfect weekend would be to first win the championship title and then come out on top in the duel with Loeb.” So Long as Ogier gets points on the Power Stage, he will be Champion, as it will be mathematically impossible for anyone else to get enough points to beat him on the next 2 rounds regardless of Ogier’s Results.
So, the question is which Seb will come out on top? Alsace is Based near Loeb’s home town, and as Ogier said, he knows these roads. But Citroen seem to be lacking pace and speed this year with there DS3. And Rallying is a mile away from track racing. It will all come down to how fast Sebastien Loeb can get into a rhythm and on the pace from the start of the event. And Ogier at the moment seems unstoppable. If there are no reliability issues with either cars, then you can expect to see an epic battle between the two greatest stars of this era at the very top of their game.
Who would you bet against?…. A 9 times World Champion, or an unbeatable Volkswagen. One thing’s for sure. For the first time in 9 years, the big Number 1 will be fitted to a different driver.
You can as always, follow all the action as it happens with Rally duchess Rebecca Williams and Colin (Voice of Rallying) Clark on WRCLive over on WRC.com.
Hoping to continue their strong form on the black stuff this weekend will be Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team when the WRC heads to Alsace in France this weekend.
Photo:D.Darrall
Last time out on the Tarmac was back in Rally Germany, when Qatar M-Sports Thierry Neuville was in a terrific battle for first place from start to finish. First battling with VW’s Jari Matti Latvala and then fighting with Citroen’s Dani Sordo right down to the final kilometre of the Rally with just tenths of seconds between them. (Click Here to read about the incredible Rally Germany battle)
So once again M-Sport will be looking to score high on this fast French Tarmac rally. However, there will be yet another challenge that could stand in the way of Neuville and the podium. The return of Sebastien Loeb. It’s expected that this weekend will be a battle of the Sebastien’s however, the Belgian is determined to battle with ‘the Sebs’ and to fight to keep his 2nd place in the drivers Championship.
Thierry Neuville
Photo:D.Darrall
“I have a really good feeling ahead of this rally, especially as we will be returning to asphalt. We saw in Germany how competitive the [Ford] Fiesta [RS WRC] is on Tarmac so we will be hoping to harness that potential once again next week. It’s a challenging rally, especially when it rains. We saw last year that there were some big cuts and a lot of mud in places, so I think road position will be key, especially over the second pass.
“As I said in Australia, I would like to be able to take the fight to ‘the Sebs’ but we will need to think cleverly and see where we are after the first day. I am sure both of them [Ogier and Loeb] will be going flat-out and we need to keep an eye on Jari-Matti [Latvala]. Ultimately, we want to maintain our second place in the championship and that is something we will need to be aware of throughout the rally.”
Mads Østberg should not be discounted for a strong result. Asphalt may not be his preferred surface, but with a fifth place finish on last year’s outing, the Norwegian will be looking for another top-five result in 2013. As the man behind Østberg’s pacenotes, Jonas Andersson will be celebrating his 100th WRC start next week. Having started his WRC campaign in 2002, the Swede’s vast experience is sure to benefit the young Norwegian as he strives to match the Tarmac specialists.
Photo:D.Darrall
“Germany was a difficult event for us, so it is important that we take what we learnt there forward to France. That will be the first task. Last year we were a lot faster in France than we were in Germany so that is something to focus on. The weather is always key. If it rains, then there will be a lot of mud on the stages – which is what we saw last year. But even when the weather is fine it is a really challenging event so I think it will be an interesting rally with a lot of drivers going for victory!
“For us, heading back to Tarmac, I think we just need to concentrate on getting through all the stages and securing a top-five result or higher. A top-five finish will be a good result for us, and I don’t want to hope for anything more until we see where our pace will be. This will also be Jonas’ [Andersson, co-driver] 100th WRC event, so a big congratulations to him. As well as having a lot of tattoos, he is also an extremely good co-driver. He has a lot of experience and has helped me a lot over the past four years. I only hope that I can bring him another 100 events!”
In the sister Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team Fiesta RS WRC, Evgeny Novikov and Ilka Minor will be eager to build on their solid performance at Rally Australia. Proving that he can finish events without incident, the thousands of fans that flood to the stages around Strasbourg can look forward to the Russian’s usual dose of ‘maximum attack’ as he aims to combine consistency with his customary speed.
Photo:D.Darrall
“I am feeling really good ahead of this event. We proved in Australia that we can make it through all the stages without a mistake, so now we want to couple that with upping the speed and hopefully taking home a top-five result.
“France is one of my favourite Tarmac events. The weather can make the event a real challenge, so we hope it will stay fine. The route is quite technical so you need to have very good pacenotes and ensure that you have a clever recce. Fortunately, I have a very good gravel crew to help me throughout the event, so I hope it could be a good event for us.”
After the World Motor Sport Council meeting this afternoon, the 2014 World Rally Championship Calendar has been confirmed.
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