Sebastien Loeb learned he won the 2006 World Rally Championship crown
while in his home in France, where he continues to recover from a mountain
bike training injury. In spite of missing Rally of Turkey and Rally
Australia, the Citroen hotshoe had built up enough points to score his
third-consecutive championship.
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Sébastien Loeb. Photo by Gauloises Kronos.
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"Just now, it's hard to realize. It's a bit too early in France ... given
the way it happened and also because I was angry with myself after my
accident and the fact that it stopped me competing, I felt relieved," the 2006 champion said.
"I don't think many people thought it was possible to clinch this title with
a private team, even if it is supported by Citroen Sport," he added. "I am
very happy for Kronos and our partners, especially BFGoodrich. Thanks to
their faultless work, we were able to build up a valuable advantage on the
first twelve rounds which helped us to reach the target today."
His current team, Kronos Racing, had the pleasure of informing him that
Marcus Gronholm did not win in Australia, which is why Loeb can now rest
easier, hopefully to return to compete in the two final events.
"It's true that it will be much easier without the obsession of coming
back quickly. But it doesn't mean that I will go easier on myself as
regards my rehabilitation. I have a lot of work to do," Loeb explained
how his recovery was going. "The X-rays we've just had have proved that
the calcification is going well. I will have some checks in two weeks'
time. I realize that a lot of time is needed. A fracture at this level
is rather complicated. On top of the bone-knitting, I need to work on
my range of movement and the strength of my arm. Some days, I have the
feeling that nothing happens but I've understood that progress comes
step by step."
His chief rival had to win three of the final four events to even have a shot at
this year's title and, even then, the chances were slim unless Loeb did
not score any points before the season finale. Twice-WRC champion Gronholm
won in Turkey, but an accident on Friday in Australia sealed his fate.
On Friday morning, Loeb was aware of the Finn's loss of time: "The
information text messages and the stage by stage classification messages
had piled up into my phone and I saw them all at the same time. By the
time I read all of them, the only thing I could remember was that Marcus
now had a ten-minute gap to the leader ... Of course, it put me in a good
mood ... I called Marc (Van Dalen, Kronos team principal) who explained
to me what had been going on."
After winning the Cyprus Rally, Loeb had a 35-point edge, with 40 points
yet to awarded. The Finn's win in Turkey closed the gap between the
two chief rivals to 25, while Loeb sat on the sidelines. Even after missing
Australia, Loeb now holds a 21-point margin, which hands him the title with
two WRC events on the 2006 calendar to be contested. Even if the
Ford Focus driver was to win Rally New Zealand and Rally Great Britain
with Loeb not running or scoring zero points, the Frenchman would win
the title by one point.
The reason Loeb chose to ignore watching the stage results on
on Thursday night and Friday in Australia was simple: "I had
followed the Rally of Turkey from the start and the performance of
Marcus Gronholm there had put me down a bit to begin with. To see
him flying like that and being at home without having a chance to do
anything about it was tough. It wasn't a great feeling. I didn't want to
repeat that," he explained.
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Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena. Photo by xpb.cc.
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Of course, the three-time champion hopes to return before the season
ends if it is in the cards: "Now I can drive my road car on normal roads. But as far as
getting back behind the wheel of a WRC car goes, I am unable to give you
a date yet, and neither are the people looking after me. The minimum
I can hope for is to take part in the New Zealand rally recce, as the
route has changed a lot," commented the Frenchman. "So even if I don't
compete on the event this year, I won't have to discover it completely
next year. For the rest I need to be patient. It gives me some time to
savour my third title."
The 2006 season began with Gronholm taking the first two victories,
setting the tone of things to come as the Ford driver held a four
point edge over Loeb in the privateer Kronos entry. Loeb answered the
challenge in Mexico and the first sign of problems for Gronholm surfaced
as Loeb held a five point edge.
Rally Catalunya belonged to Loeb from the first leg and with Gronholm
third, Loeb extended his points lead to nine. The two went head-to-head
in Loeb's home Tour de Corse event. Loeb won, Gronholm was second and at
that time, it appeared the points would continue to be tight.
Argentina opened the door for Loeb to build points when the Ford hiccup
placed Gronholm back in tenth. Loeb and his co-driver Daniel Elena
took their 24th WRC career win. Loeb was now tied with Tommi Makinen in
rally wins. Ironically, Makinen clinched his 1998 WRC championship -- his
third -- after retiring early from an event. He was just about to board
a flight home to Finland when he learned that Carlos Sainz retired just
short of taking the win.
The Rally Argentina event landed Elena the all-time co-driver win tie with
Luis Moay: "It's fantastic! "But the party only really starts if I manage to
beat him," said Elena at the time.
Gronholm showed on the first day in Sardinia that the battle was not yet
over. However, on the second day, the Finn hit a rock, causing damage
to the Ford's sump beyond repair. Gronholm retired the Focus from round
seven's competition and Loeb's lead extended to 66 points over 35 for
Gronholm.
Loeb and Elena landed their 25th WRC victory -- Elena now could party as
the new co-driver recored holder. For the French ace, the win placed him in the
position to tie Sainz for the overall win record. A feat many expected
Loeb would pull off with eight events yet to be contested.
Having won two WRC titles, Gronholm was not one to give up the fight,
he came back to score the Acropolis Rally win, closing the gap only by
a small margin as Loeb was second. The two had time to think about the
rest of the season with the summer break. Loeb was not idle, he ran for
Pescarolo Sport at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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Podium: winners Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena. Photo by Kronos Racing.
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Germany was the next stage for the two. And it was the scene where Loeb
tied the legend! "I want to really savour the feeling of equalling
Carlos Sainz' record number of wins," expressed the delighted Frenchman
after taking the win. "I've never hidden the fact that this is a record
I really wanted, because of the immense respect I have for Carlos and
his career. Yet it's still a benchmark I want to beat... "
It was also in Germany that Loeb extended his lead and the door started
to close for Gronholm: 84 to 51. The next event would be Gronholm's home
rally. And when Loeb stumbled on the second day in Rally of Finland with
the Finn in command from the opening day, Gronholm was able to smile
brighter.
Yet Loeb never gave up, and in Japan the tables were turned when the Ford
driver slipped, but made a remarkable comeback as the two battle to the end.
To add to the victory for Loeb was the fact that the French driver now owned
the out-right WRC win record.
And then came Cyprus which landed Loeb and Elena their 27th WRC victory,
their ninth of the season. Of course, if Loeb can return, the duo can
add to the overall win margin but will have to contend with Gronholm's
desire to close the season out by earning the manufacturers' title for
Ford.
"After the final stage finish, I sent Marcus a friendly text message to
thank him for the competition. He answered that it was just fair and
that I deserved this title. He also warned me about next year !!!!"
closed out Loeb with delight on the prospect.
