Sébastien Loeb remains on alert

Sébastien Loeb arrives in Turkey with two consecutive victories (Mexico, Jordan) and a good lead in the World Championship rankings. Despite everything, the Citroën Racing driver remained wary before tackling the Rally from Türkiye, due to the novelty of the route. “ It?s never easy to discover a rally, says the Alsatian. It's a new route, we don't know the terrain, we're discovering everything. During the reconnaissance, it was more complicated because, in two passages, it was necessary to take the most precise notes possible. »

« Some specials are nice, continues the six-time World Champion. Overall, it's very fast, much faster than what we had in Turkey some time ago. Some stages are perhaps even a little too fast. Others have a ground that is a pile of crushed stones, where there will be a great risk of puncturing or breaking something on the car. It's not very interesting. It is chance that will determine whether we have a problem or not. But there are also some great special stages. »

If the sweep was at the center of all the conversations in Jordan, Sébastien Loeb thinks that the first difficulty of the Rally of Turkey is its route. The Citroën driver knows that he must not make any mistakes in these very demanding special stages. “ There are technical passages, with a lot of “sky”, with curves hidden behind, with large stones on the edges, a bit like in Jordan. But here, it?s often faster so it?s even easier to make a mistake. »

« I think they are forecasting rain so in some stages it will be really difficult, continues Sébastien Loeb who remains on alert. There are places in the undergrowth where the ground is very soft and, with the rain, it risks creating serious ruts. That wouldn't be very nice. »

However, the Frenchman believes that the famous sweeping phenomenon will still have a role to play this weekend. But the weather could annihilate this disadvantage for the first crew to pass the special stages. “ This is a rally where sweeping can be important. If it rains, there will be less. This will reduce its importance but it can also deteriorate in the other direction. I hope we will be able to have a good first day and we will see how it goes »