[Video] Fifteen years ago, Sébastien Loeb secured the first win of his incredible career
French rally sensation Sébastien Loeb had taken his maiden World Championship win back in January after guiding his Citroën Xsara WRC to victory in the most fickle event of them all, the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.
Except he hadn’t.
A tyre-swap mix-up by the team landed Loeb a two-minute penalty, dropping him to second behind Finn Tommi Mäkinen, who secured a record fourth consecutive Monte win. The reigning Junior World Champion would have to wait until August to finally join the WRC winners’ club. And he would do so in style in the inaugural WRC-qualifying Rally Deutschland.
Results for the 27-year-old in the first half of his limited season had been poor (he’d scored just two points, for fifth in the Safari, in his five outings since the Monte), so he was desperate to perform on the Mosel vineyard-lined asphalt just over the border from his Alsace home.
First blood went to Peugeot’s former World Champion Marcus Grönholm, who led after the first two stages. Thereafter, though, Loeb upped his pace to take control.
With Subaru’s Mäkinen losing his handbrake early on the hairpin-lined route, Ford aces Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz struggling and sealed-surface Peugeot star Gilles Panizzi missing the event with a shoulder injury, it would be reigning World Champion Richard Burns who proved to be the biggest threat to Loeb. The Englishman’s Peugeot 206 blended speed and consistency to stay in contention with the fastest of the sister Citroëns, ready to pounce for a first win for his new team if Loeb should strike trouble.
Burns thought his prayers had been answered when the #21 Xsara WRC had a wild spin. Loeb dropped time and would have to continue with bent steering, allowing Burns to close to within six seconds.
With a repaired car and no loss of confidence, Loeb reeled off the final day’s seven stages to take a legitimate maiden WRC win. Burns had been mighty on the final loop, too, eclipsing his rival 4-3 on stage wins, but fell short in the final reckoning by just 14 seconds.
And so began a decade or more of Sébastien Loeb dominance. He’d win his ‘home’ rally another eight times over the next nine years, only faltering in 2011 when he finished second to team-mate and namesake Sébastien Ogier, and take an unprecedented nine consecutive drivers’ titles between 2004 and 2012.
And it all began 15 years ago today.
Rally Deutschland, 2002
1 Sébastien Loeb (F)/Daniel Elena (MC) – Citroen Xsara WRC, 3h47m17.3s
2 Richard Burns (GB)/Robert Reid (GB) – Peugeot 206 WRC, +14.3s
3 Marcus Grönholm (FIN)/Timo Rautiainen (FIN) – Peugeot 206 WRC, +1m19.1s
4 Colin McRae (GB)/Nicky Grist (GB) – Ford Focus RS WRC, 3m45.3s
5 Bruno Thiry (B)/Stéphane Prévot (B) – Peugeot 206 WRC, 5m18.8s
6 Markko Märtin (EST)/Michael Park (GB) – Ford Focus RS WRC, 5m33.0s
Photography courtesy of LAT Images