Sebastien Loeb only needs his rivals to finish seventh or lower in Japan for him to take down another crown, a seventh one, on September 12.
Loeb’s nearest challenger, young Citroen Junior Team driver Sebastien Ogier, is trailing him by 58 points with a total of 100 points left to gain in this 2010 season.
There are four rallies left to the season and only Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala (74 points short), Peter Solberg (91 points short) and Loeb’s Citroen teammate Dani Sordo (96 points short) can mathematically still beet the champion.
If all fail to do better than a seventh place finish in Japan, the 75 points available in France, Catalunya and Great Britain altogether won’t be enough to take Loeb down.
Solberg and Sordo are also logically out of contention as the champion has scored points in every rally he participated to since the Acropolis Rally, in the summer of 2009, and they would need him as well as Ogier and Latvala to experience serious problems in the last four events, events they would have to win to have a chance at the crown.
Racing for victory, Loeb assured he will not take the easy way out and will keep looking for victories, but he confirmed he will nevertheless be driving with a seventh title in mind.
“It would be stupid to come this far and then throw it away chasing more rally wins. I have to be sensible, try to win [the title] and then see afterwards,” he said.
Nice little catch for Loeb: Ogier will be his teammate in Rally GB. It would be interesting to see how they both react would the championship chase miraculously hold still until then.
Loeb’s nearest challenger, young Citroen Junior Team driver Sebastien Ogier, is trailing him by 58 points with a total of 100 points left to gain in this 2010 season.
There are four rallies left to the season and only Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala (74 points short), Peter Solberg (91 points short) and Loeb’s Citroen teammate Dani Sordo (96 points short) can mathematically still beet the champion.
If all fail to do better than a seventh place finish in Japan, the 75 points available in France, Catalunya and Great Britain altogether won’t be enough to take Loeb down.
Solberg and Sordo are also logically out of contention as the champion has scored points in every rally he participated to since the Acropolis Rally, in the summer of 2009, and they would need him as well as Ogier and Latvala to experience serious problems in the last four events, events they would have to win to have a chance at the crown.
Racing for victory, Loeb assured he will not take the easy way out and will keep looking for victories, but he confirmed he will nevertheless be driving with a seventh title in mind.
“It would be stupid to come this far and then throw it away chasing more rally wins. I have to be sensible, try to win [the title] and then see afterwards,” he said.
Nice little catch for Loeb: Ogier will be his teammate in Rally GB. It would be interesting to see how they both react would the championship chase miraculously hold still until then.