Loeb regains victory at Rally de Catalunya

The 2018 season of WRC has further gained in intensity with an incredible edition at Rally of Catalonia. Sebastian Loeb (Citroën) returned to success in the World Rally Championship for the first time since 2013 in Argentina by achieving its 9th success in the Catalan event, its 79th victory in the discipline.

VICTORY The 78th wasn't the last... I didn't think there would be a 79th one day! But she could only arrive with @DanosElena et @CitroenRacing ! Thanks to them, it’s just incredible! #WRC #C3WRC #RallyRACC #CitroënRacing pic.twitter.com/fIdjJGE1GC

- Sébastien Loeb (@SebastienLoeb) 28th October, 2018

After taking the advantage on his hard tires in the first pass, the nine-time WRC champion retained the lead against Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) who remained the only rival able to threaten the Alsatian. Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) made a slight error, contact with the rail which caused a puncture on the front left in the penultimate special.

Sébastien Ogier finally failed less than 3 seconds behind his compatriot, but the five-time WRC champion takes the lead of the championship for 3 points ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). The Belgian missed the Power Stage bonus points by suffering a puncture and slipped to 4th place, half a second behind Elfyn Evans (M-Sport), author of the 4th fastest time in the bonus special won by Ott Tänak (Toyota) who preceded Ogier, Loeb, Evans and Dani Sordo (Hyundai). The Spaniard knocked his teammate out of the Top 5 of the special despite himself, but he still finished 5th in the event standings, less than 2 seconds behind the Belgian.

Ott Tänak was able to move up to 6th place by taking advantage of the team instructions as he was ahead of his teammates Esapekka Lappi and Jari-Matti Latvala who lost his chances of victory with his puncture. Craig Breen (Citroën) and Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) completed the Top 10 ahead of Teemu Suninen (M-Sport).

If Hyundai failed at the foot of the podium, the Korean manufacturer took advantage of Toyota Gazoo Racing's bad weekend to reduce its deficit from 20 to 12 points before the last event held in mid-November in Australia.

Kalle Rovanperä (Skoda) took his second consecutive victory in WRC 2 after that of Wales Rally GB. The Finn maintained a lead of less than 9 seconds over Jan Kopecky (Skoda), while Petter Solberg (Volkswagen) completed the category podium ahead of Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Ford) and Nil Solans (Ford). Pierre-Louis Loubet (Hyundai) took 7th position, finishing 6 seconds behind Henning Solberg (Skoda).

Discover the analysis of the Rally of Catalonia carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2189 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms and from this Wednesday on newsstands.