Sebastien Loeb conceded the lead in the drivers' championship in Turkey last weekend and after having to settle for third the Frenchman was none-to-pleased with his event.
Loeb had to play the road sweeper on both days one and two, thanks to Ford's tactics at the end of the opening leg [see separate story] and while he still had an outside chance to win on the final day, in the end he was powerless to stop
Mikko Hirvonen and
Jari-Matti Latvala from locking out the top two places. He eventually finished 25.7 seconds off the winner in his
Citroen C4 WRC - and 17.8 seconds off second place.
"I cannot say I'm happy about finishing third and I'm no more pleased to have conceded the lead in the Drivers' Championship," said the four-time world champion. "For three days we have tried everything. We often exceeded our limits, using every bit of the car's potential and that of the Pirelli tyres which stood up well to the risk of punctures.
"As during Legs 1 and 2, we pushed as hard as possible today, but it wasn't sufficient. Our set-up was good, our C4 WRC was very competitive and we didn't make any mistakes.
"Despite running third on the road though, we failed to benefit from better conditions. Our rivals didn't sweep the road in the same way we were forced to on the previous legs."
Tactics and road sweeping were one of the biggest talking points in Turkey and with Loeb saying it was 'wrong' they played such a key role, the Frenchman definitely wasn't very impressed.
The good news though for those that didn't like such manoeuvres, is that Seb doesn't think it will be such an issue in the second half of the year.
"Except maybe for New Zealand, we should no longer have to worry about the problem of 'road-sweeping' for any of the seven rallies that remain, and that can only be a good thing," he added.
