Bang went Sébastien Loeb's engine in France, the victory went to Sébastien Ogier on home soil and, bang… the WRC championship race is wide open.
“Merde!” It’s a quote that wasn’t televised but nonetheless pretty clear after the engine of Sébastien Loeb’s previously bulletproof Red Bull Citroën came to an unexpected halt on the third stage of the Rallye de France.
“We saw a warning light about the oil pressure, the engine lost power, and then we had to switch it off,” said the seven-time world champion.
'Now I have to make sure that I drive the last two rallies properly' – Sébastien Ogier
The unexpected breakdown means that Loeb’s championship lead has been dramatically trimmed to three points with just two rounds to go. “It’s great for the championship,” said Sébastien Ogier, the winner of his home rally for the first time. “Now I have to make sure that I drive the last two rallies properly. But anything can happen. Hopefully not to us though… ”
However, Loeb wasn’t the only one to hit trouble on the third stage. Unbelievably, both of the factory Fords went off too.
I made a mistake by entering a slow corner too quickly,” explained Mikko Hirvonen. “The impact knocked a tyre off the wheel rim. Afterwards the vibration was so bad my co-driver’s pace notes sounded like they were coming from a lamb!”
Citroën Racing Media
While Hirvonen was listening to various bleatings, his team mate Jari-Matti Latvala had different problems.
“I took a risk with tyre choice,” said Latvala. “The back of the car started to move around and in a left hand bend, it slid away. I tried to brake but the car went off onto the grass. It was soft and we became stuck.”
Cue lots more swearing and pushing. In the end though, Hirvonen finished fourth – enough to mean that he has a very real chance of the title – with Latvala fifth. Citroën privateer Petter Solberg was third.
'Maybe it’s a Mini, but the performance is quite Maxi' – Dani Sordo
Other highlights of the rally included Mini. The British team came within 6.3 seconds of winning only its fourth-ever rally thanks to Dani Sordo. “Maybe it’s a Mini, but the performance is quite Maxi!” said Sordo. “Seriously, we could have won.”
Not so happy was Kimi Räikkönen, who slid off the road following a collision with the Ford of Henning Solberg while warming up his tyres on Friday morning. “It was just one of those stupid accidents,” concluded his co-driver Kaj Lindstrom. “If the car in front is braking while the one behind is accelerating, there’s normally only one way it ends up. It’s nobody’s fault.”
All eyes are now at the front of the title race, where Citroën boss Olivier Quesnel has a bit of a nightmare on his hands as he attempts to referee what’s going to be an intense title showdown between the two Red Bull drivers. At the same time he needs to ensure that Hirvonen doesn’t snatch the championship from under their noses. “The team leader will be Sébastien Loeb, and then we will see what happens,” he said. “Unfortunately, it looks like we made a mistake when we were building Sébastien’s engine for this rally: the first mistake we made like this in 10 years. It just happened to be on Sébastien Loeb’s car, in France.”
Want more?
- No entente cordiale as Sébastian Loeb retires from Rallye de France
- Official World Rally Championship website wrc.com
- Sauna and sardines: Juho Hanninen's dream dinner party
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