LOEB STARS ON RALLYE DU VAR IN CLASSIC PEUGEOT 306 MAXI

Wrc legend and co-driver daniel elena return after 17- year break

Sebastien Loeb wound back the years at last weekend’s Rallye du Var, pushing a 21-year-old Peugeot 306 Maxi to within an ace of victory in the south of France.

Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena ultimately retired with an engine problem on the penultimate stage, but not before they turned in an astonishing performance in one of Peugeot’s best-loved two-wheel-drive cars.

Third after Friday afternoon’s loop of three stages, the nine-time world champion moved to the front on Saturday’s opener and stayed there for the next five stages. Loeb’s hopes of a famous win on the Sainte-maxime-based event went south when his 306 Maxi stopped in the 13th of 14 stages. He had just set his second scratch time on SS12 to close the gap to the leader to just 4.9 seconds.

“We managed to compete with the best in the Peugeot 306 Maxi,” said Loeb. “It is a beautiful car, with good power and a lot of fun to drive. The feeling was very good, it was a great fight and Daniel and I were very motivated to win the rally.”

Elena amusingly added on social media: “We have no regrets, we gave it everything – even our pistons!”

Loeb has a special relationship with the Rallye du Var. He first competed there in 1999, retiring an Ffsa-backed Citroen Saxo kit car with a blown engine. Twelve months on and he was back to take his first major win at the wheel of a factory Citroen Xsara kit car. In 2003, he shared a C2 S1600 for course car duties with his wife Severine co-driving. Five years on and they returned in the same car and finished an astonishing third overall. The pair won Var in 2009 (C4 WRC) and 2014 (DS 3 WRC) and last weekend was Loeb and Elena’s first attempt at the rally in 17 years.

Fellow French rally stars Gilles Panizzi and Francois Delecour also competed. Seven-time world rally winner Panizzi drove a Peugeot 208 T16 R5 on the allasphalt event, but retired on Saturday morning with mechanical drama. Delecour wheeled an Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 with mixed fortunes, finishing second behind Romain Dumas’ Porsche 911 GT3 in the GT class.