Citroen's Sebastien Loeb was left bitterly disappointed in NZ on Sunday when he ended up on the wrong side of the closest finish in the history of the WRC, 0.3 seconds behind eventual winner, Marcus Gronholm.
At the finish the Frenchman was clearly annoyed not to have taken the victory, although he did take a number of positives from the pace of his Citroen C4 WRC, which was every bit a match for Gronholm's Ford Focus.
"It rarely comes more frustrating than that! It was reassuring to see that we were able to challenge for victory throughout the rally, though,” he confirmed, “and that's very encouraging for the rest of the season.”
Indeed throughout there was nothing to split Seb and Gronholm - and although Loeb did take more stage wins, nine to Gronholm's eight, it wasn't quite enough.
"I didn't get off to the best of starts [this morning]. There was absolutely no grip on the first stage [SS12] and I didn't manage to find the ideal pace,” he continued. “Marcus passed ahead by a tenth of a second but the rest of the morning went better for us.
“My Citroen C4 WRC was very competitive and enabled me to push harder on SS13 and SS14 which I won to regain the lead. The gap was less than three seconds, however, and the final loop promised to be extremely close.
"We managed to stay level with Marcus in many places [on the repeat loop], but we still dropped time on each test.
“On top of that, rain started to fall just as we were about to start two of the last ['proper'] stages. That's rallying.
“I pushed as hard as I could but it was always at the back of my mind that eight points for finishing second would be better than a blank scorecard in terms of the fight for the Drivers' title.”
Asked if he can still retain his title, Seb noted that while he cannot afford to finish second much more, with only 10 points between them and 50 points still up for grabs, he is still very much in contention.
“We have to fight harder for the championship now,” he added.
“I am quite good on the tarmac [and three of those events left are on asphalt] and I usually beat Marcus [on the 'black stuff'], so will see what we can do,” he summed-up.
