Loeb pessimistic about recovery
Seven-time world champion Sebastien Loeb says he does not expect to improve on his current sixth place in Sweden - a result which would be his worst result on the event since 2003
Loeb suffered comfortably the worst of the conditions yesterday, when he ran in the deepest snow at the front of the field. While trying to recover time from his tough start, the Frenchman has run into continued tyre problems with the new Michelin cover.
The Citroen DS3 driver is a minute and a half down on his team-mate Sebastien Ogier going into the second half of the rally.
"For the rest of the event, I am looking forward to trying to stay on the road and scoring some points," said Loeb.
He admitted he had pushed on the morning's opener, raising hopes of a repeat of his stunning fightback on last year's Rally New Zealand, but another puncture put paid to that.
"It's difficult with the tyre," said Loeb. "For sure the tyre is less stiff [than last year's Pirelli], but we also have to lower the pressure to find the grip - that's the problem.
"Last year we could drive the Pirelli with quite high pressure and still find the grip, so it was no problem. Now we go a bit too low and we're on the limit with that."
Loeb added: "I was okay in the first stage. I had a tyre out of the rim, then on the second stage I hit the snowbank, on the third I had a puncture, on the last stage I had the tyre off the rim so I didn't want to push in case I had another puncture. Not a great morning."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments