The battle of the ‘SEBS’

Nine-time defending World Rally Championship (WRC) champion Sebatien Loeb (in pic) won the third and penultimate event of his truncated farewell season at Sunday’s championship round in Argentina.

The win was the Frenchman’s eighth win at the event over the last nine years, in the process beating his former Citroen teammate and compatriot Sebastien Ogier.
Ogier led the time sheets on the opening day of Rally Argentina until a mistake on the seventh special stage caused him to understeer off the gravel course and reverse his way back.

Loeb’s final winning margin over the Volkswagen works driver was just 55 seconds after Ogier decided to not to pursue his rival from Citroen.

Loeb is scheduled to compete in his final WRC event at the Rallye de France, which will be held from 4 to 6 October.

Ogier leads the championship standings by a margin of 54 points over Loeb in second place.

The two Frenchmen have combined to win every one of the five events held so far. Ogier has three wins to Loeb’s two who did not participate in the last two rounds at Mexico and Portugal.

Rather than rue his driving error, Ogier claimed that mechanical issues cost him victory in the rally. The young Frenchman blamed suspension issues for his failure to make up ground to his more experienced counterpart.

The Polo WRC has reportedly suffered from handbrake and rear differential issues since the start of the season.

Before the two French stars face off in WRC for one last time, they are set to ‘battle’ each other in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race at Monaco, which is scheduled to be a support race for the Formula 1 race.

The battle between arguably the WRC’s two best drivers was anticipated by rallying fans due to the two being the lead drivers at their respective factory teams.

However, Loeb’s scaled down schedule and impending retirement has been seen as another blow to the once popular championship’s appeal to motor sport fans.

Hyundai’s entry into the WRC next year is expected to provide a further boost with more drivers having access to factory teams. However, developments like Petter Solberg’s switch to the European Rallycross Championship has caused speculation as to the WRC’s future format.