Sébastien Loeb
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Sébastien Loeb (born February 26, 1974) is a French rally driver and winner, with co-driver Daniel Elena, of the World Rally Driver's Championship title in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and of a record ten World Rallies in 2005. Loeb has the most WRC wins with 28 and is one of the most successful rallymen in history.
Late in the 2006 season, Loeb broke his right humerus in a mountain-biking accident near his home in Switzerland and missed the rallies in Turkey and Australia. Colin McRae made a comeback to stand in for Loeb in the Turkey rally, but the Kronos Total Citroën team chose to only bring two out of three cars to Australia, cutting McRae's comeback short.
In spite of this, Loeb had accumulated such a huge points lead before Turkey that Marcus Grönholm's failure to finish third or better in Australia handed Loeb the 2006 championship crown. He received the news at home via an Internet video link to the race grounds. Due to the time difference, he made do with early morning coffee instead of the customary champagne, calling the whole experience "strange".
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[edit] Debuts
Loeb was born in Haguenau. He grew up in Oberhoffen-sur-Moder wanting to become a gymnast/acrobat, but instead turned his interests to racing as an adult. In 1998, he started entering events in the French Citroën Saxo Trophy series, winning the title in 1999. Guy Frequelin, Citroën Sport's Team Principal, would serve as Loeb's mentor as he entered the Junior World Rally Championship, which he conquered in 2001. During this time, he was also released for participation in various World Rally Championship events in the Citroën Xsara, where in Sanremo he surprisingly hounded Peugeot tarmac wizard and eventual victor Gilles Panizzi to the finish.
2002 would be Loeb's first full-season with Citroën. He won the Rally Germany, the first event of his flourishing career, although on road he also won the season-opening Rally Monte Carlo. His victory was taken away by a controversial time penalty after the last stage, which gave victory to second placed Tommi Mäkinen. In 2003, Loeb won three WRC events before losing to Petter Solberg in Wales Rally Great Britain and also losing the championship to Solberg by just one point.
[edit] World champion (2004)
In 2004, Loeb dominated the WRC-scene in a similar way to the Michael Schumacher domination of Formula One from 2000 to 2004, by winning six events and earning many podium finishes in other events to securely give him the driver's title. He was also responsible for Citroën's second manufacturer's title in a row.
Originally known as a tarmac specialist, 2004 was the year he proved to the world he could do it all. He won the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, becoming the first non-Scandinavian to win the event. He also won many gravel and tarmac rallies such as Telstra Rally Australia and Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo . Loeb's six WRC victories tied the record for victories in one season with fellow Frenchman Didier Auriol, who won six events in 1990.
[edit] A record season (2005)
In 2005, with victory in the 9th round (Argentinian Rally), Loeb became the first to win six consecutive rallies, and the first to win seven in a season, having already won the opening Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo . He was in a position to clinch the title while leading Wales Rally Great Britain, but after it was announced that the last two stages of the rally would be abandoned due to the death of Michael Park in an accident on stage 15, Loeb deliberately incurred a two minute penalty to drop him to third place and avoid retaining his title in such circumstances.
He won all twelve stages in the 2005 Rallye de France, another record, the first time a driver had won every stage of a WRC rally. This was his ninth victory of the year, and victory on Rally Catalunya in Spain made his number of 2005 victories 10, beating his (and Didier Auriol's) own record of six wins in a season.
In 2005, he also participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the team of the Pescarolo n° 17. Reportedly Loeb did much of his preparation for the race by running practice laps around the circuit in the Sony PlayStation 2 video game Gran Turismo 4 aboard a private jet. In the race the car was plagued by incidents, but Loeb proved to be able to drive fast for his first race on a closed track.
Finally, he also won the individual title Champion of Champions in the 2005 Race of Champions.
[edit] Le Patron (2006)
Citroën's parent company, PSA Peugeot Citroën, pulled both companies out of the WRC at the end of 2005, but Citroën plans to come back in 2007 with the Citroën C4 WRC, the development of which Loeb will be closely allied to. He plans to reacquaint himself with the Versailles-based factory squad in 2007.
In the meantime, a 'gap year' beckoned in the privateer ranks, namely with Kronos Citroën. Despite driving a car at the end of its potential, he showed that he was still Le Patron (the Boss), by dominating the season and winning a third title with the Xsara.
In order to score on the first round in Monte Carlo, however, he was initially forced to activate the SupeRally rules for retiring competitors, having spun off the road on Leg 1. Although he did manage to claw back 2nd place in the Principality, it was the first time he had ever been beaten to the finish (namely by fellow double-time champion Marcus Grönholm) on these roads in the Xsara WRC. This outcome was mirrored on the following month's Swedish Rally, with Grönholm again the man to whom Loeb was forced to give best, placing the duo in an early runaway 1-2 position in the points standings.
But the Frenchman's bridesmaid status was not to last, and racking up a triumph on the ensuing Corona Rally Mexico - the first of five on the trot that season - propelled him into a championship lead he was never to lose. Those five consecutive victories have also edged him close to Carlos Sainz's record number of 26 individual rally victories, which he finally tied in August with a fifth consecutive victory in Germany. With his subsequent victory in Japan, the world record of 27 victories and counting eventually became his. His victory in Cyprus put him on the verge of a third consecutive World Rally Championship title, which was secured with Grönholm failing to take enough points in Australia to theoretically challenge Loeb's lead.
Loeb finished second overall in the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Pescarolo-Judd, between the two Diesel-powered Audi R10.
[edit] 2007
In 2007, Sébastien Loeb will again be an official Citroën driver, with the new Citroën C4 WRC.
[edit] WRC Victories (28)
[edit] 2002 (1)
| 1. | # 10 | Germany | Citroën Xsara |
Loeb also won the Monte Carlo event in 2002 but was later docked 10 seconds for a technical infringement and demoted to second place.
[edit] 2003 (3)
| 1. | # 1 | Monaco | Citroën Xsara |
| 2. | # 8 | Germany | Citroën Xsara |
| 3. | # 11 | Italy | Citroën Xsara |
[edit] 2004 (6)
| 1. | # 1 | Monaco | Citroën Xsara | |
| 2. | # 2 | Sweden | Citroën Xsara | |
| 3. | # 5 | Cyprus | Citroën Xsara | |
| 4. | # 7 | Turkey | Citroën Xsara | |
| 5. | # 10 | Germany | Citroën Xsara | |
| 6. | # 16 | Australia | Citroën Xsara |
[edit] 2005 (10)
| 1. | # 1 | Monaco | Citroën Xsara |
| 2. | # 4 | New Zealand | Citroën Xsara |
| 3. | # 5 | Italy | Citroën Xsara |
| 4. | # 6 | Cyprus | Citroën Xsara |
| 5. | # 7 | Turkey | Citroën Xsara |
| 6. | # 8 | Greece | Citroën Xsara |
| 7. | # 9 | Argentina | Citroën Xsara |
| 8. | # 11 | Germany | Citroën Xsara |
| 9. | # 14 | France | Citroën Xsara |
| 10. | # 15 | Spain | Citroën Xsara |
[edit] 2006 (8)
| 1. | # 3 | Mexico | Citroën Xsara |
| 2. | # 4 | Spain | Citroën Xsara |
| 3. | # 5 | France | Citroën Xsara |
| 4. | # 6 | Argentina | Citroën Xsara |
| 5. | # 7 | Italy | Citroën Xsara |
| 6. | # 9 | Germany | Citroën Xsara |
| 7. | # 11 | Japan | Citroën Xsara |
| 8. | # 12 | Cyprus | Citroën Xsara |
