OGIER ISSUES LOEB BATTLE CALL AFTER BREAKING MONTE WIN RECORD
French legend wants to fight Loeb when he goes for 10th victory in Monaco in 2024
Sebastien Ogier wants a Monte Carlo Rally rematch with Sebastien Loeb after he became the most successful driver in the history of the event.
The French legends were tied on eight Monte victories apiece after last year’s 90th running, that Loeb won by 10.5 seconds following a penultimatestage puncture for Ogier.
Loeb’s participation on the Dakar Rally, which finished in Saudi Arabia the day before the Monte recce started, all but ensured there would be no outing on the World Rally Championship opener for 48-year-old, who retired from full-time WRC duty after claiming his ninth World title in 2012.
Ogier, who went part time in 2022, led this year’s Monte from start to finish for his 56th WRC win and the first for co-driver Vincent Landais.
Speaking after taking his ninth victory in the principality, 39-year-old Ogier said he has no plans to stop tackling his home round of the
WRC any time soon and would relish taking on Loeb.
“It’s no secret that I enjoy competition and when he’s there, it’s often nice competition and the crazier we are, the better the show is,” said the factory Toyota driver. “I think it will be great to have him showing up next year.”
Loeb wrote on social media: “Bravo Seb. When is the revenge of the retirees of the WRC?”
Ogier wouldn’t reveal the make-up of his bit-part campaign in 2023 when quizzed before the Monte start, while M-Sport hasn’t ruled out Loeb, who finished second on the Dakar to Nasser Al-Attiiyah, driving one of its Ford Puma Rally1s this season.
Although Ogier was never headed on last week’s Monte, it emerged afterwards just how close he came to defeat when a transmission fault was identified during Friday morning’s 20-minute service, which resulted in a rapid gearbox change.
“It was so impressive to watch them work,” Ogier said of his Toyota mechanics. “It was something linked to the clutch. The team saw something wrong on Friday morning, but they weren’t sure what. Thirteen minutes before going somebody say, ‘OK, we change the gearbox’. I thought,
‘oh, no way they’re going to do it in 13 minutes…’We were waiting two minutes before checking. I need to say a big thank you to the team and my guys, it’s just incredible what they did.”
With Ogier not including next month’s Rally Sweden on his schedule, it will fall to Kalle Rovanpera to open the road in Scandinavia. The defending World champion was second to his Toyota Yaris team-mate and also won the Powerstage to make him the next best-placed driver in the standings following the season opener.