M-Sport Ford WRC Team’s Sebastien Loeb made history in Monte Carlo on Sunday becoming the oldest rally driver to win the FIA World Rally Championship season-opener at the age of 47.
Speaking following the rally the Frenchman said:
I didn’t expect so much when I came here,” “It was a great fight, Ogier was really fast and I struggled a bit yesterday and even this morning.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sebastian Ogier who led the early stages of the event was second overall, 10.5s behind Loeb and speaking flowing the action he said:
It has been a huge joy to compete in this special rally again and to be in this incredible fight. This weekend we don’t come out as the winner but we can definitely keep our head up. Together with Benjamin and the team we did the job. We have done a great performance over the weekend and there were no issues on the car, which is a fantastic achievement. Fate decided differently today but I’m still smiling and I still enjoyed this fight very much. Honestly I feel there was nothing I could do about what happened on the penultimate stage. It was a cut I avoided on the first pass but on the second pass it was impossible to avoid, it was very dirty and I had to follow the line of the others. But well done to Sébastien and Isabelle for the victory, they have done a remarkable performance and it was a very tough fight. It’s been a good weekend for the sport.”
Irelamd’s Craig Breen rounded out the podium in third and in doing so, he and Paul Nagle have given M-Sport an early lead in the Manufacturers’ championship.
Breen said:
Kalle Rovanpera was fourth just ahead Gus Greensmith who took his maiden rally stage win this weekend while Thierry Neuville rounded out the top six.
“At the end of this rally, we are left with feelings of disappointment and frustration. We had a tough weekend. I drove for my life in the Power Stage, I gave it absolutely everything, so I was disappointed with the time. There has been a huge amount of work behind the scenes to prepare for this event, from me and Martijn, as well as the team, so to come away without any reward is hard to accept. We won’t give up. We are trying to keep everyone motivated and we will continue pushing. The will is definitely there and that’s important. There are different areas we are going to work on but most important is the reliability. We need to be much stronger for the upcoming events
Thierry Neuville
Ben's News Round-Up 