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Loeb delighted with 'tough' win
Australia - Citroën - Sébastien Loeb - 14/11/2004 11:02:54

Telstra Rally Australia winner Sebastien Loeb has admitted that he found it very hard to focus on finishing the event after the retirement of all his leading rivals in the rally's early stages. The Frenchman finished 1m55s ahead of Peugeot’s Harri Rovanpera.

The final event of the 2004 season proved to be a test of mental endurance for Loeb following the retirement of Ford’s Markko Martin and Subaru’s Petter Solberg on leg one, before Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm made it a trio of leading retirements at the start of leg two.

As Solberg and Gronholm returned to the event under the SupeRally rules to trade fastest stage times, however, Loeb said it was difficult just to focus on finishing the rally and scoring a record-equalling sixth win of the 2004 World Rally Championship season.

“After Marcus went out, it was quite difficult for me to concentrate, because there was no-one to fight against,” he said. “I dropped my pace off, but I immediately spun so I realised that wasn’t the way to go forward. The car was perfect – I had no problems at all – and the rally was really enjoyable. The stages were very challenging.

“It’s nice to share the record of six wins with Didier Auriol [from 1992]. As a driver, it’s always nice to get statistics like this. It makes you very happy.”

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