Sébastien Loeb

Sébastien Loeb is a champion rally racer, winner of the driver's championship title in 2004 and 2005.

Related Topics:
Rally racer - 2004 - 2005

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He was born on February 26, 1974 in France. He grew up wanting to become a gymnast/acrobat, but instead turned his interests to racing as an adult. In 1998, he started entering events in the French Citroën Saxo Trophy series, winning the title in 1999. Guy Frequelin, Citroën Sport's Team Principle, would serve as Loeb's mentor as he entered the Junior World Rally Championship, which he conquered in 2001. During this time, he also participated in various World Rally Championship sanctioned events in the Citroën Xsara.

Related Topics:
February 26 - 1974 - France - Citroën Saxo - Junior World Rally Championship - World Rally Championship - Citroën Xsara

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2002 would be Seb's first full-season with Citroën. He won the Rally Germany, the first event of his flourishing career, although on road he also won the season-opening Rally Monte Carlo. His victory was taken away by a controvertial time penalty after the last stage, which gave victory to the second place Tommi Mäkinen. In 2003, Loeb won three WRC-events before losing to Petter Solberg in the Wales Rally Great Britain and also losing the championship to Solberg by just one point.

Related Topics:
Citroën - Rally Germany - Petter Solberg - Wales Rally Great Britain

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Along with Petter Solberg and Markko Märtin, Loeb is one of the pioneers of the new style of rally driving, which quickly superseded the aggressive sliding style formerly employed by drivers like Colin McRae, Tommi Mäkinen and Richard Burns. Those new breed of rally drivers fully utilize the active differential technology to trace corners with minimal tailslide, often aggressively cutting the inside of the corner.

Related Topics:
Petter Solberg - Markko Märtin - Colin McRae - Tommi Mäkinen - Richard Burns

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In 2004, Loeb dominated the WRC-scene as much as Michael Schumacher dominated Formula One from 2000 to 2004, by winning six events and earning many podium finishes in other events to securely give him the driver's title. He is also responsible for Citroën's second manufacturer's title in a row.

Related Topics:
Michael Schumacher - Formula One

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Originally known as a tarmac specialist, 2004 was the year he proved the world he could do it all. He won the Uddeholm Swedish Rally. He was the first non-Scandinavian to win the event. He also won many gravel and tarmac rallies such as Telstra Rally Australia and Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo . Loeb's six WRC-victories tied the record with fellow Frenchman Didier Auriol, who won six events in 1990.

Related Topics:
Uddeholm Swedish Rally - Scandinavia - Telstra Rally Australia - Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo

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Citroën's parent company, PSA (Which also owns Peugeot), is pulling both companies out of the WRC after 2005, and Loeb will have to go to another team. In 2005, with victory in the 9th round (Argentinian Rally), Loeb became the first to win six consecutive rallies, and the first to win seven in a season, having already won the opening Monte Carlo rally. He was in a position to clinch the title at the Wales Rally Great Britain, but after it was announced that the last two stages of the race would be abandoned due to the death of Michael Park in an accident on stage 15 and Marcus Grönholm withdrew, Loeb deliberately incurred a two minute penalty to drop him to third place and avoid retaining his title in such circumstances.

Related Topics:
PSA - Wales Rally Great Britain - Michael Park - Marcus Grönholm

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In 2005, he also participated in Le Mans in the team of the Pescarolo n° 17. Reportedly Loeb did much of his preparation for the race by running practice laps around the circuit in the Sony PlayStation 2 video game Gran Turismo 4 aboard a private jet. The car was plagued by incidents, but Loeb proved to be able to drive fast for his first race on a closed track.

Related Topics:
Le Mans - Pescarolo - Sony - PlayStation 2 - Video game - Gran Turismo

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