Even Sebastien Loeb can't believe how good he is!

Photo: Best of Rally Live

Sebastien Loeb is a nine time WRC champion, with 900 stage wins under his belt, it's fair to say he knows what he's doing but even he was shocked at how well he drive on the opening stage of the 2015 Montecarlo Rally.

Thing is,  Loeb  retired from full time rallying in 2012.  Sure, he did a couple of rallies in 2013 but basically he's been relaxing, a bit of le Mans here, a bit of WTCC there, schooled everyone at Global Rallycross, broke the Pikes Peak record,  you know, normal retiree stuff.  

This year, Citroen was able to talk him into one more Monte Carlo Rally, Loeb has won seven, it's his favorite event.   Loeb's target is rival Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, the current champion driving for VW.

The first stage of the Montecarlo rally was brutal: ice, snow and fog along the  21 km night stage.  Ogier set the early pace and led comfortably over the field until he's bested by Ott Tanak, driving for Ford. The Estonian beat Ogier by 9 seconds,  quite a feat in the conditions.

Then it was Loeb's turn.  He beat Tanak by 22 seconds, Ogier by over 30 seconds.   That is just ridiculous.   As he's mobbed by reporters waiting after the finish, Loeb, head soaked in sweat, asks how far back he is, he has no clue because new for this year drivers are not allowed to receive split time information.

"I just said to Daniel (Elena his co driver) three kilometers from the end, we are completely stopped" said Loeb "It was very difficult"

Masterclass.

This clip is taken from the live broadcast. If you love following live (or watch replays) we recommend you look into the WRC+ service which offers all that and more for $49 per season.

Black Friday Tonic: Top Drivers try to put Golf on two wheels, fail.

Rally Sweden: Flying Frenchies

Day two of Rally Sweden and it's still the battle of the Sebastiens, with Ogier in the VW Polo R WRC  leading Loeb in the Citroen by 30 seconds.   Can Loeb conquer the one rally he has not dominated in his incredible career in this his final run at it?

More highlights from the rally so far.



Colin's crest

Rally Sweden

...How it went is, shocker, Sebastian Loeb is leading after the first Special Stage. Rally Sweden is on of only four Loeb will take part of this season, others being Monte Carlo, Argentina and France. In fact, Sweden is one of the few rallies Loeb has not dominated in his career.

UPDATE: Perhaps Loeb's Swedish jinx are catching him out again, as of FRiday evening Ogier has caught him and gapped him by 10sSeconds

Battle of the Sabastiens!

Apparently, if your name is Sebastien, you have a 60% chance of being faster every time but, how does it work if you pit two Sebastiens against each other?

2013 Montecarlo Rally,  the last one ever for  Sebastien Loeb, the first for the "other" Sebastien, Ogier, in the new Volkswagen Polo WRC.

Stage 1 and it's a narrow victory for Ogier,  3.7 seconds over Loeb.   Predictably, this just serves to make Loeb mad and he proceeds to give Ogier 10 seconds on Stage 2 and 19 seconds on stage 3.

Overall the four stage first leg ends with Loeb ahead of Ogier by a fairly massive 1:20 and  1:46 in front of third place Hirvonnen.

Long rally,  brutal weather, lots of snow,and as it turns out,  embarrassing timing and scoring issues for the FIA and the ACM

 

Monte Carlo Rally Day 3: just sounds

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Monte Day 2: Loeb in control, Ogier crashes hard!

(Photo: AGENCE S PRESSE/Andre Lavadinho)


The Monte Carlo Rally used to be a snow race but global warming has pretty much turned into a straight tarmac rally.

Thursday,  Sebastien Loeb consolidated his lead while Mini's Dani Sordo, who Spanish papers say took a 30% pay cut in order to get the seat, moved into 2nd followed by Petter Solberg in a Ford.



Sebastien Ogier crashed his Skoda hard, a scary accident that luckily resulted in just a minor injury to his navigator, Julien Ingrassia.



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2011 Monza Rally Show

Every year the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza gets turned into a labyrinth of chicanes and slaloms, a Ken Block Gymkana minus the special effects and editing! The really cool parts is that rally cars get to run on the old banked track...at night!

Above is Danni Sordo in a Mini WRC, Below Dindo Capello, out of his usual environment driving a Citroen DS3 WRC And Valentino Rossi tearing it up in the Monster Energy Ford Focus WRC




More after the jump.

Oh Putain, it's a Fiesta in Sweden!

For the first time in what seems like forever, Citroens are not dominating a WRC event, well not yet anyway. Rally Sweden marks the debut of the new 1600cc formula and Ford has four cars in the top five spots after the first day.

Sebastien Loeb was on snowplow duty, having to sweep the course for everyone else, the other Sebatien, Ogier, had a little navigational issue, so it was four Fiestas up top after day one.





But don't count on the French team not to spoil the fiesta yet, Peter Solberg is still in the hunt despite a penalty. Loeb won a stage but a puncture put him quite a way down. Raikkonen has not crashed yet, Ken Block ended up in a snow bank and had to be dug out by fans and relegated to last in class. He did win an informal "longest jump" contest and tweeted about it though. Expect "Block hoons" headlines to pop up :)

Rally Mexico Day 2 Highlights

Day two of Rally Mexico saw another amazing performance by Sebastien Loeb making up a 20 second first day deficit and adding almost a minute to P2 in the process.

Ken Block ended up crashing out, not quite as spectacularly as Kimi Raikkonen but at least he made it much further into the rally!

Full highlights after the jump.


















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