10 years ago… Loeb and Elena’s first victory in Finland

At the switch between the months of July and August 2008, the world of WRC is governed by a crew. You certainly guessed it despite his long horses in the photo (above), Sébastien Loeb addresses the rally of Finland crowned with four world titles, associated with daniel helena (whose appearance has also evolved since) and Citroen.

On July 31, 2008, Sébastien Loeb was not as dominant as usual, because the Finn Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) leads the general classification. Narrowly (three points), but with the prospect of a rally on the driver's land M-Sport, the Alsatian is not the favorite of punters. Its best place in the land of “jumps” is a 2nd place in 2005 and 2006, behind aerials pro Marcus Grönholm.

The leader of the Citroën team started the event perfectly with the best time in Thursday's super special. The next day, he increased his lead over local native Mikko Hirvonen to 14”.

On courses traced between the Finnish forests, the duel between the two men is extremely close. As Daniel Elena mischievously pointed out on Saturday, “We attacked the stage this morning at 6 a.m., and eight hours later, the gap has only changed by four tenths. We could have gotten up a little later and not started the day until 14 p.m.! »

The Citroën C4 performs flawlessly and leads the rally throughout the 23 special stages, which did not include the Ouninpohja classic. Despite a small error in the final sector, the Chevron car remained 9'' ahead of the Ford Focus, which was (at the time) the smallest gap for victory since 1997. The rally dear to the Finns had therefore a new king!

“It’s incredible, winning Rally Finland means so much to me.”, admitted the future nine-time world champion, winner after nine tries. I was desperate to win this round! Winning was more important than scoring points. I had no chance to rest. »

A certain Finn already had a good habit of performing spectacular tricks: Jari-Matti Latvala. The Ford driver retired from SS 3 after a rollover. “A youthful mistake”, then wrote CARhebdo (n ° 1660). “I feel sorry for the team. I didn't see a rock and afterwards we left the track on a ridge. »:

Quiet weekend? Not really, if we recall the mishap experienced by the n°1s on the road to the service park on Saturday evening: the C4 ended up in the ditch ! Fortunately, help from supporters was authorized in this sector, and the Citroën left without injury or penalty.

Little scare on the connecting course! © DPPI / Frédéric Le Floc’h

The victory was perhaps decided in the reconnaissance, where the crews had to take notes while driving slowly. Well, slowly, this is not always the case: Loeb received a nice fine of 2 euros for speeding (050 km/h for a limit of 101)...

Having returned to just one point behind Mikko Hirvonen, Sébastien Loeb won his fifth coronation a few months later, then a sixth, a seventh, in short, you know the story!