Sébastien Loeb wins the Azores Rally

On April 1, the Alsatian felt like a fish in water in the middle of the Atlantic. For his discovery of the Azores rally, Seb perfectly led by Laurène Godey delivered a superb demonstration of his talent to add yet another event to his record.

Published on 01/04/2023 à 20:44

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Sébastien Loeb wins the Azores Rally for his first participation

On paper, nothing was done to make Sébastien's task easier. Loeb. The latter had not initially participated in a rally conventional since the Acropolis 2022. It had therefore been 7 months since he had set foot in a race and this was all the more complicated by the fact that he was going to have to start with a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 which he had only tested for 40 km. Furthermore, even if he is riding in confidence with Laurène Godey, his partner in the left seat, they had not raced together since Var 2019. The crew had no point of reference on the island of Sao Miguel that they both discovered just like the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2. Finally, to make things even worse, the presence of fog during the reconnaissance did not make it easy to take notes. “ It is true that at the start of the event there were few elements in our favor, Sébastien smiled. By making this kind of one-off participation, he is forced to be confronted with this type of inconvenience, but we have managed to adapt. »

Already perfectly in the game during the shakedown and qualifying, Loeb confirmed his rapid adaptation by taking the reins of the race from SS1. Andreas Mikkelsen having suffered a loose tire in this special, he was obliged to maintain a margin to avoid a 2^e problem which would have meant the end of his rally. Loeb didn't ask for that much. Author of 4 best times, he built up a lead of 15s1 before the longest stage.

During this, the nine-time world champion was forced to start first on the road and therefore had to sweep. His rival took the opportunity to make up part of his delay while Sébastien showed himself unhappy with some of his grades. At the start of the final loop, the Norwegian came back to just 8s4, with two sections still to go, but he made a mistake which allowed Loeb to start the Power Stage with a gap of 18s2. At the end of this last timed sector, he and Laurène could savor their victory.

« We had a perfect weekend, he smiled at the port of Ponta Delgada. Everything went well both with the car and with the notes. I particularly enjoyed the specials. It was a great discovery and we fully achieved the objective that we had set for ourselves, namely to have fun in the car and to have fun competing in a rally together with Laurène. »