Sébastien Loeb about the Azores: “A varied and difficult route”

Sébastien's face Loeb darkens like the leaden sky that reigns above Ponta Delgada at the end of Thursday afternoon. He, Andreas Mikkelsen and Erik Cais met on the promenade along the port for a photo in preparation for the Azores Rally. " We had a day in the fog, he moans. When you can do a second confirmation pass in the special stages, it helps, but we saw absolutely nothing in it. »

You just have to look at the hills that surround the capital of the archipelago to understand what the French means. A thick white veil covers everything beyond the last houses. “ Here, by the sea, there is no fog, continues Seb et it would have to be really clear for it to be clear on the heights. "" Many people told us that we would have a beautiful panorama from the top of the volcano, but we saw nothing », laughs Laurène who actually shows photos in which it is not easy to see the famous lakes in the crater.

« I was not surprised by the diversity of the course, says Sébastien Loeb. All the stages are different, with very slow and winding sections in the forest, but also very fast places. It's interesting. » Concerning speed, the navigator confirms: “ I won't have the chance to look at the road, she smiled. I wanted a rally easy, but it won't be. Sometimes it's really turn after turn... I'm going to have to be quick too. At the beginning, it wasn't easy to find the rhythm again, because it's been a long time since I played this role. »

Sébastien Loeb and Laurène Godey will start the shakedown on Friday morning (Photo: Loïc Rocci)

Si Sébastien Loeb s’interroge sur la meilleure manière d’aborder la course, il a déjà gommé une inconnue : sa voiture. N’ayant pas piloté de Rally2/R5 depuis la Hyundai i20 de 2019, il a trouvé que la Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 était une auto efficace. « We did around 40 km of testing and I judged that it was enough, he says. It has progressed. I consider that the only thing that is worse than on a WRC, it's the engine, because apart from that, the chassis is really good. She's super agile and it feels very well balanced. You don't suffer from inertia. It was well set up from the start, there were no major faults, we just worked a little to remove a bit of understeer. »The crew that wears the colors of the Azores island will have the opportunity on Friday (March 31) to measure themselves against the competition during the shakedown (from 10:00 a.m. in France). The rally will then start a few hours later (SS1 at 15:33 p.m. in France) for a stage of 5 special stages and 39,42 km timed.

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