Loeb, winner in Portugal: "Everything went perfectly this week"

The nine-time World Rally Champion, partnered with Édouard Boulanger, secured his third W2RC victory. Sébastien Loeb had previously won the Rally of Andalusia 2022 and the final round of the 2025 championship, the Rally of Morocco. With a lead of more than two minutes at the finish, Loeb managed his advantage throughout the week, and he finished in style on rally sections that he had already visited in the past in this same event.

"Today, it was a bit more like the special stages I remembered from the past. Of course, since it had been a long time since I'd been here, the memories were rather vague, but it's a place I like in Portugal, and where I had some good memories."

The Alsatian was understandably delighted to win, even though he noticed that the young guns were hungry for victory! “Winning this Rally-Raid Portugal is really great, I really enjoyed the rally, the stages were interesting, sometimes you had to attack like in the old days of…” WRC "This is the kind of terrain I like, but we also saw that the young riders are very good on these types of tracks, and I'm really happy to have managed to win here."

Taking advantage of the setbacks suffered by Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sébastien Loeb is expected to start the rest of the championship as the W2RC leader. After a near-perfect week in Portugal, the Dacia driver hopes this form can continue throughout the year.

"I think we're taking the lead in the championship, so after Nasser's big score at Dakar, it's not so bad to be back in the fight. Everything went perfectly for me this week, I hope it continues in the future."

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