Autosportfoto

Peugeot is right up there - Loeb

Sebastien Loeb has revealed it will take ‘perfection' to win the World Rallycross Championship this season but believes Team Peugeot Total has the car to get him in the title hunt this year.

The Frenchman demonstrated impressive pace in the dry during the World RX of Portugal, round two of the 2018 World RX season, claiming his first Qualifying Race win on the season in Q1 en route to second position in the Intermediate Classification.

The trickier conditions of Sunday's semi-final and final represented more of a challenge for the nine-time World Rally Champion in his Peugeot 208 but while he didn't have the pace to match dominant race winner Johan Kristoffersson, it was still enough to finish second.

His second straight podium, though the wait continues for Peugeot to top the podium for the first time since the 2016 World RX of Latvia, Loeb feels he is closing on his goal.

"I had a really good feeling with the 208 WRX from the beginning," said Loeb, who sits fourth in the standings, 14 points behind double winner Kristoffersson. "In the dry, the car was easy to handle, and I felt very confident: I could concentrate on the lap time rather than what I was doing with the car itself.

"The Q1 and Q2 sessions were good but in Q3 the conditions were different, and I was struggling a bit more to find the line. Luckily in the semi-final the conditions were dry again, then the final was run in amazing conditions. It was a good fight all weekend and I really enjoyed it; it's not normal to see snow!

"The battle is so close between everyone, but we are right up there too. You have to do everything perfectly if you want to have a good weekend in rallycross. It's not always easy but very satisfying when it happens."

Team-mate Timmy Hansen proved similarly quick in his Peugeot 208, winning Q2 and his semi-final - ahead of his Loeb - but a spin coming out the last corner in the final scuppered his hopes of a podium result.

"In the final, I was going well but Kristoffersson was faster, and I made a mistake when I was trying to keep up. The weather changed for the final and we didn't have time to adapt the car to the slippery conditions: we still had the set up from the dry run before.

"So, I think that was part of it, but it was also my mistake. I went too fast into the corner, hit the rail and spun round. That's racing sometimes, mistakes can happen.

"At least we had a good weekend, a good qualifying and a win in the semi-final, with very tricky conditions. It's a shame we can't celebrate on the podium now, but I think the pace is there every time we're on track; there's no reason to feel negative."

Zdroj: fiaworldrallycross.com