The day after his victory in the team event with Victor Martins, Sébastien Loeb won the individual race of the race of champions, which brought together pilots of multiple mechanical sports in the Sydney Olympic stadium.
Sébastien Loeb may be 51 years old and have suffered a new disillusionment on the Dakar at the start of the year, there remains an outstanding competitor! The Frenchman signed a magnificent double by winning both the team test on Friday (with Victor Martins, Formula 2 pilot) and the individual test on Saturday during the race of Champions, this competition created in 1988 and which brings together pilots of different mechanical sports (F1, rally, motorcycle, nascar, rallycross, supercars, etc.). Never had a pilot have won the two trophies in the same edition, and the nonuple rally champion did this year this year, during this edition which took place for the first time in the southern hemisphere, on a asphalt track installed in the Sydney Olympic stadium.
Directly qualified for the quarter-finals as a seeded in this table of the individual event where it was necessary to win two rounds to go to the next round, Sébastien Loeb beat 2-0 the Australian rally pilot Molly Taylor, then 2-0 the Swedish rally pilot Oliver Solberg. In the final, the Frenchman was opposed to Chaz Mostert, the Australian pilot of Supercars. And there too, it won 2-0! A perfect day that allows him to win the individual breed of champions for the fourth time, after 2008, 2011 and 2022, and to join his compatriot Didier Auriol and the Swedish Mattias Ekström, four victories on the clock also.
Martins eliminated in the group phase
“I am very happy and proud of all this. It was an exceptional weekend. We won the Cup nations on Friday with Victor who was incredibly fast. Today, reaching the final and winning it was a great time. Yesterday, victory was a relief and I said to myself “no pressure for tomorrow and I will only attack”.
It worked! (Smiles), ”reacted the big winner of the day after the race, before making a rear perilous jump, his trademark, on the podium. The other Frenchman in the running, Victor Martins, finished third in his hen and did not qualify for the quarter -finals. Also note the elimination of the two former German F1 pilots Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher in the quarterfinals.
