Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb has extended his lead at the top of the FIA Word Rally Championship to 27 points following a stunning second win on Neste Oil Rally Finland. Here are the best images from the event…
Driving a Citroen DS3 WRC, Loeb started first on the road on all three days of the high-speed gravel event but battled to his 66th victory at world championship level alongside co-driver Daniel Elena. In doing so he becomes the first non-Nordic driver to win the event twice.
Loeb, from Strasbourg, France, began the final day with a 1.5s lead over team-mate Sebastien Ogier but feared he would drop time cleaning the surface gravel for his rivals behind. However, overnight rain cancelled out any possible delay to the extent he was able to extend his margin thanks to a staggering display on stages 12 and 13.
But with some stages badly rutted for the afternoon loop, Loeb still faced a tough fight to maintain his lead. However, when Ogier picked up a front-left puncture on stage 17, Loeb was almost in the clear despite Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala cutting his advantage to less than 10 seconds in the closing stages.
Driving a Citroen DS3 WRC, Loeb started first on the road on all three days of the high-speed gravel event but battled to his 66th victory at world championship level alongside co-driver Daniel Elena. In doing so he becomes the first non-Nordic driver to win the event twice.
Loeb, from Strasbourg, France, began the final day with a 1.5s lead over team-mate Sebastien Ogier but feared he would drop time cleaning the surface gravel for his rivals behind. However, overnight rain cancelled out any possible delay to the extent he was able to extend his margin thanks to a staggering display on stages 12 and 13.
But with some stages badly rutted for the afternoon loop, Loeb still faced a tough fight to maintain his lead. However, when Ogier picked up a front-left puncture on stage 17, Loeb was almost in the clear despite Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala cutting his advantage to less than 10 seconds in the closing stages.
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| Photo: Citroën Racing |
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