Sebastien Loeb still hasn’t given up on a podium finish on Rally New Zealand, despite completing the opening day of the world championship qualifier more than one minute off the lead.
Loeb dropped out of contention for his fourth consecutive victory of 2010 when he slid into a bridge on the fourth stage of the Auckland-based rally. The contact left his Citroen Total World Rally Team C4 WRC with a badly damaged driver’s side door and also filled the cockpit of the car with dust.
With regulations limiting the amount of work his Citroen mechanics could do during the remote service halt in Whangarei, Loeb was forced to soldier through the afternoon loop of stages still nursing the damage to his car. However, he fought back gallantly and set the fastest time through the second running of the Bull stage.
“Maybe a podium is possible because there’s a long way to go, but when you look at the times this morning, the leading cars were separated by a couple of seconds and I’m one minute and 40 seconds down,” he said at the Whangarei service. “I really don’t know what we can do now - it’s going to be tough.”
Loeb accepted the blame for the crash, which occurred 5.4 kilometres into the 22.20-kilometre Cassidy stage shortly after 1100hrs local time.
“There was a right-hand corner, which narrowed at a bridge,” said Loeb, who reported that he was travelling at no more than 50kph. “On the entry to the corner, I lost the rear of the car, it was my fault - I braked too late. The car slid and we hit the bridge on my side.”
Loeb drove on for a short distance before his side door opened. “It was open and I was going to lose the door so I had to stop,” said the Frenchman. “I lost a lot of time, maybe one minute trying to get the door fixed. But it wasn’t working so I had to drive and hold the door shut. The dust [in the car] was terrible.”
The last time Loeb failed to win a WRC event was on the season-opening Rally Sweden, when he lost out on victory to Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen.