Loeb: “My confidence has evolved behind the wheel”

Sébastien Loeb suffered in the first stages of the Rally de Suède. À l’issue du premier passage, le pilote Hyundai n’occupait qu’une lointaine 9e place à plus de 43 secondes de la tête de la course alors occupée par Ott Tänak (Toyota) pour son retour sur l’épreuve scandinave qu’il avait remportée en 2004 mais qu’il n’avait plus disputée depuis six ans.

“The day was dedicated to looking for improvements. I couldn't find the right rhythm this morning. These cars are very fast in these stages and you have to be fully confident. You have to believe in the grip of the car to have the ideal speed to fully launch into each corner”, explained the Frenchman.

The Alsatian was nevertheless able to gain performance in the second passage which most of the crews feared due to the melted snow making the courses muddy and tricky. By taking advantage in particular of the errors of Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota), the former world champion was able to climb to 6th place less than 7 seconds behind the Citroën C3 WRC by Esapekka Lappi.

“We improved on each course and my confidence grew behind the wheel, he admitted. We tried to make up for some of the lost time while taking care not to make any mistakes. We will try to make further progress tomorrow. »

The second stage of the Rally Sweden will begin this Saturday from 7:44 a.m. with 7 more special stages on the program. The event will be followed live with our live text.