Sébastien Loeb is a French rally driver and a nine-time champion of the World Rally Championship. With 80 rally wins in the World Rally Championship, Loeb is the most successful rally driver in the history of the championship, alongside his co-driver Daniel Elena. Competing in his native France in the early parts of his career, Loeb later contested the World Rally Championship with the French Federation of Automobile Sport, between 1999 and 2000. For 2001, Loeb joined Citroën and was a Junior World Rally Champion with the team.
During 2002, Loeb won his first event in the World Rally Championship, winning the 2002 Rallye Deutschland ahead of the then-defending World Champion Richard Burns. He continued with Citroën in 2003 and won three rallies en route to second place in the championship. From 2004 to 2012, he won a further 72 rallies along with nine championships while driving for Citroën, except in 2006 when he drove for Kronos Citroën while Citroën were developing their World Rally Car for 2007 under a break from the series as a constructor. For the 2013 season, Loeb announced he would step down from full time rallying and only compete in four selected events before retiring from the World Rally Championship in 2014. He would go on to win two of them, taking his total number of wins to 78. He returned to the World Rally Championship in 2015 with Citroën to drive a single event, while in 2018 he would drive a further three events with the team. In his last event of the 2018 season, the 2018 Rally Catalunya, he scored his latest win when he beat Sébastien Ogier to the win. Between 2019 and 2020, he drove selected events for Hyundai but scored no wins for the team.
Loeb holds several records in the World Rally Championship, in addition to his record 80 wins. He became the most successful driver when he won the 2006 Rally Japan, his 27th win. In 2005, he became the first, and so far only, driver to score six wins in a row, he would also repeat the same feat between the last event of 2008 and first five rallies of 2009. He is also the driver with most wins in the same season, winning eleven rallies in 2008. Loeb has won both Rallye Deutschland and Rally Catalunya nine times each, which is a record for most wins in the same rally. In total, Loeb has been victorious at 23 different rallies, which is also a record.
Wins
Key: No. – Victory number; for example, "1" signifies Loeb's first rally win. Rally – Rally number in Loeb's World Rally Championship career; for example "25" signifies Loeb's 25th World Rally Championship rally. Stage surface – The surface, or surfaces if many, the stages of the rally took place on. Stage wins – The amount of stages won by Loeb during the event. Margin – Margin of victory, given in the format of minutes:seconds.milliseconds – Driver's Championship winning season.
Rally victories No. Rally Season Event Stage surface Stage wins Margin Team Car Co-driver 122 2002Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 11 0:14.3 Citroën Citroën Xsara WRC Daniel Elena225 2003Rally Monte CarloAsphalt and snow 5 0:38.1332Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 2 0:03.6435Rallye SanremoAsphalt 5 0:28.3539 2004Rally Monte CarloAsphalt and snow 6 1:12.6640Rally SwedenSnow 4 0:46.4743Cyprus RallyGravel 7 0:15.1845Rally of TurkeyGravel 6 0:26.2948Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 9 0:29.11054Rally AustraliaGravel 8 1:55.11155 2005Rally Monte CarloAsphalt and snow 9 2:58.31258Rally New ZealandGravel 8 0:49.81359Rally Italia SardegnaGravel 8 0:59.61460Cyprus RallyGravel 14 4:09.51561Rally of TurkeyGravel 10 0:59.61662Acropolis RallyGravel 12 1:36.21763Rally ArgentinaGravel 9 0:26.11865Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 13 0:37.41968Tour de CorseAsphalt 12 1:51.72069Rally CatalunyaAsphalt 10 1:21.92173 2006Rally MexicoGravel 9 0:48.9 Kronos Citroën2274Rally CatalunyaAsphalt 5 0:48.22375Tour de CorseAsphalt 6 0:29.02476Rally ArgentinaGravel 5 0:44.62577Rally Italia SardegnaGravel 8 2:41.42679Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 6 0:33.82781Rally JapanGravel 11 0:05.62882Cyprus RallyGravel 11 0:21.22983 2007Rally Monte CarloAsphalt and snow 6 0:38.2 Citroën Citroën C4 WRC3086Rally MexicoGravel 6 0:55.83187Rally de PortugalGravel 11 3:13.93288Rally ArgentinaGravel 10 0:36.73392Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 5 0:20.33494Rally CatalunyaAsphalt 5 0:13.83595Tour de CorseAsphalt 9 0:23.73697Rally IrelandAsphalt 9 0:53.43799 2008Rally Monte CarloAsphalt and snow 10 2:34.438101Rally MexicoGravel 8 1:06.139102Rally ArgentinaGravel 5 2:33.240104Rally Italia SardegnaGravel 4 0:10.641105Acropolis RallyGravel 4 1:09.542107Rally FinlandGravel 15 0:09.043108Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 14 0:47.744109Rally New ZealandGravel 6 0:17.545110Rally CatalunyaAsphalt 11 0:24.946111Tour de CorseAsphalt 14 3:24.747113Wales Rally GBGravel 8 0:12.748114 2009Rally IrelandAsphalt 11 1:27.949115Rally NorwaySnow 9 0:09.850116Cyprus RallyGravel and asphalt 6 0:27.251117Rally de PortugalGravel 10 0:24.352118Rally ArgentinaGravel 12 1:13.153124Rally CatalunyaAsphalt 5 0:12.054125Wales Rally GBGravel 9 1:06.155127 2010Rally MexicoGravel 8 0:24.256128Jordan RallyGravel 9 0:35.857129Rally of TurkeyGravel and asphalt 7 0:54.558132Rally BulgariaAsphalt 5 0:29.559134Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 9 0:29.560136Rallye de France–AlsaceAsphalt 7 0:35.761137Rally CatalunyaAsphalt and gravel 7 0:35.362138Wales Rally GBGravel 11 0:35.363140 2011Rally MexicoGravel 9 1:38.4 Citroën DS3 WRC64143Rally Italia SardegnaGravel 4 0:11.265144Rally ArgentinaGravel 8 0:02.466146Rally FinlandGravel 5 0:08.167150Rally CatalunyaAsphalt and gravel 5 2:06.968152 2012Rally Monte CarloAsphalt and snow 9 2:45.569154Rally MexicoGravel 7 0:42.470156Rally ArgentinaGravel 4 0:15.271157Acropolis RallyGravel 6 0:40.072158Rally New ZealandGravel 7 0:29.673159Rally FinlandGravel 9 0:06.174160Rallye DeutschlandAsphalt 9 2:00.075162Rallye de France–AlsaceAsphalt 8 0:15.576164Rally CatalunyaAsphalt and gravel 4 0:07.077165 2013Rally Monte CarloAsphalt and snow 8 1:39.978167Rally ArgentinaGravel 2 0:55.079172 2018Rally CatalunyaAsphalt and gravel 3 0:02.9 Citroën C3 WRC80181 2022Monte Carlo RallyAsphalt and snow 6 0:10.5 M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Puma Rally1 Isabelle Galmiche
Number of wins at different rallies
No. Rally Years won Wins1 Rally Catalunya 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018 92 Rallye Deutschland 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 20123 Rally Argentina 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 84 Rally Monte Carlo 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013, 20225 Rally Mexico 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 66 Cyprus Rally 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009 47 Rally Italia Sardegna 2005, 2006, 2008, 20118 Tour de Corse 2005, 2006, 2007, 20089 Acropolis Rally 2005, 2008, 2012 310 Rally Finland 2008, 2011, 201211 Rally New Zealand 2005, 2008, 201212 Rally of Turkey 2004, 2005, 201013 Wales Rally GB 2008, 2009, 201014 Rally Ireland 2007, 2009 215 Rally de Portugal 2007, 200916 Rallye de France–Alsace 2010, 201217 Jordan Rally 2010 118 Rally Australia 200419 Rally Bulgaria 201020 Rally Japan 200621 Rally Norway 200922 Rally Sweden 200423 Rallye Sanremo 2003Source:
Notes Loeb provisionally won the 2002 Monte Carlo Rally, but was later docked two minutes for an illegal tyre change and demoted to second place. Loeb also provisionally won the 2009 Rally Australia, but was penalised one minute to second place as his car was fitted with a non-regulation part.
References