Sébastien Loeb – Triple World Rally Champion

Sébastien Loeb has won his third consecutive World Rally Championship despite being 9,000 miles away from this weekend’s action in Australia!

Sitting on a handsome 35-point lead with only four rallies to go, Loeb broke his arm in a training accident five weeks ago, leaving him to recover at home during the rallies of Turkey and Australia.

Although nearest challenger Marcus Grönholm picked up a win in Turkey to reduce the arrears to 25 points, he crashed in the early stages of Australia and could only finish fifth, leaving Loeb with an insurmountable lead in the 2006 Championship race.

Joining Citroën just five years ago, Loeb in his Citroën Xsara WRC, is only the third rally driver to win a hat-trick of World Rally Championships and holds the record, 28, for the most rally wins of any driver in the history of WRC.

Sébastien Loeb commented on his success: “Just now, it’s hard to realise. Given the way it happened and also because I was angry with myself after my accident and the fact that it stopped me competing, I felt relieved. I don’t think many people thought it was possible to clinch this with a private team (Kronos Total Citroën WRT), even if it was supported by Citroën Sport. I am very happy for Kronos, thanks to their faultless work, we were able to build up a valuable advantage on the first 12 rounds which helped us to reach the target today.”