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Loeb: This win was very important |
Sebastien Loeb has said that it was absolutely critical that he won the Rallye de France-Tour de Corse this weekend and took another bite out of Marcus Gronholm's championship lead.
Loeb took four points off the Finn in Spain last Sunday and following his seventh win of the season in Corsica took back another two. The Frenchman now trails the BP Ford man by just four points, with three rounds to go and a maximum 30 points up for grabs.
“It was very important for me to win here for the Championship. We are now four points from Marcus, so everything is still possible even if no one can fight with us,” said the Citroen #1 driver. “If I win all the rallies, I will win the Championship. It's my only chance.”
Asked if he was disappointed to only gain two points over Gronholm though, Seb had mixed feelings: “For sure, I would prefer someone to be between me and Marcus, but it was not possible.
“Marcus was really fast, perhaps too fast at the start, but then we managed to pass him. It's not so bad, two points is not so bad,” he added.
As for the event overall, Seb was extremely pleased to have won his home event for the third year on the trot, even if Gronholm did make him work for it, especially on day one.
"I am particularly fond of this event and I am delighted to have won here again. It wasn't a particularly restful weekend and we didn't get off to the best of starts," he continued.
"However, along with the technical team, we responded well after making some small adjustments to the set-up of our C4. I felt much happier with my car from Friday afternoon on and that enabled us to take the lead, pull clear and ultimately win. We leave Corsica now with two more points than our rival in the Drivers' championship and the last three rounds promise to be very exciting indeed.”
The WRC now heads to Japan and last season Loeb and Gronholm had a fantastic scrap there.
Will it be the same this year?
“It's difficult to say at the moment. The last gravel rally in New Zealand was really close. Last year in Japan was really close. Maybe it can be the same, yes,” Seb summed-up.
