| abstract
| - Sebastien Loeb is the Michael Schumacher of rallying. He has won 9 world titles, taken 67 WRC rally victories. He seems completely unstoppable. He took the JWRC Championship and won a drive in the 2001 Sanremo Rally, where he came second after chasing Gilles Panizzi's Peugeot to the end. His first win was on the 2002 ADAC Rallye Deutschland, beating Richard Burns' Peugeot 206 despite a investigation as he accidently went up the wrong way on the Superspecial. He had another chance earlier at the Monte Carlo rally but got a 2 minute time penalty for illegaly changing tyres, instead giving the win to Tommi Makinen. In 2003 he came runner up in the championship behind Petter Solberg with 3 wins on the Monte Carlo, Sanremo and German rallies. He just missed out by 1 point on the season's finale on the 2003 Wales GB because Citroen wanted him to play safe so they would win the manufacters championship. In 2004 he equaled Didier Auriol's record of six wins in a single season. He took the world championship that year on the 14th rally out of 16. He won three more championship on the trot between 2005 and 2007. In 2008 he won another championship and now has the most drivers titles with 5. He has won all of his championships driving for the Citroen team, who he has been with since 2001. In 2009 then, Loeb won the opening round of the season at the 2009 Rally Ireland and then won the 2009 Rally Norway after a close battle with Ford's Mikko Hirvonen that lasted throughout the rally. He also added the 2009 Cyprus Rally to his wins list and with it his 50th WRC win. He took 7 wins in the season and won the championship by just a single point from Hirvonen. In 2010, the 2010 WRC season was started with the Swedish Rally, where Loeb finished second behind Ford's Mikko Hirvonen. He went on to take a clear championship lead by winning the following three gravel events: Rally México, Jordan Rally and Rally of Turkey. In New Zealand, Loeb finished third in a tight battle that saw the top five finish within 26 seconds of each other. In Portugal, Loeb narrowly lost the win to his countryman Sebastien Ogier of the Citroen Junior Team, who took his debut win in the World Rally Championship. In the following Rally Bulgaria, a new event in the series and the season's first tarmac rally, Loeb won while Citroën scored the WRC's first 1–2–3–4 in seventeen years. The 2011 season brought a new generation of World Rally Cars. Now at the wheel of a Citroën DS3 WRC, Loeb started his year by finishing sixth at the Rally Sweden. He went on to win in Mexico for the fifth time in row, after teammate Sébastien Ogier crashed out from a narrow lead. In Portugal, Loeb finished second to Ogier and took his first Power Stage win, collecting three more points from the final stage. At the Jordan Rally, held during the Arab Spring, the entire first day was cancelled. Loeb placed third behind the closest-ever finish in the history of the World Rally Championship. He then beat Ford's Mikko Hirvonen to the win at the Rally d'Italia Sardegna. In Argentina, Loeb won after a tight three-way battle, taking the lead from Ogier on the final stage and finishing 2.4 seconds ahead of Hirvonen. At the next event, the Acropolis Rally in Greece, Loeb had to settle for second behind Ogier. In the high-speed Rally Finland, he beat Jari-Matti Latvala to become the first non-Nordic driver to win twice in the event's 60-year history. In August, Loeb signed a two-year contract extension with Citroën. At the Rallye Deutschland, Loeb held a close lead ahead of Ogier after the first day and Citroën decided to freeze the situation. A puncture later dropped Loeb out of contention and he finished behind his teammate. This ended his record win streak in Germany and was the first time that he had lost in a tarmac-based event since the 2006 Monte Carlo Rally. Tension in the team grew; David Evans of Autosport wrote that "it's war between the two Sebs". Before Australia, Loeb held a 25-point lead in the championship ahead of Ogier. During the first day of the rally, both Sébastiens crashed out. Loeb later gained a point by climbing to tenth place after Citroën ordered Ogier to slow down. In his home event, the Rallye de France, Loeb took the lead from the start but soon fell victim to a rare engine failure in his DS3 WRC and had to retire. As Ogier beat Mini's Dani Sordo to the win, Loeb now tied the lead in the championship with Hirvonen, and Ogier was only three points adrift. At the Rally Catalunya, Loeb took his fifth win of the season and broke Markku Alén's record (801) for most stage wins in the world championship. He carried an eight-point lead over Hirvonen into the season-ending Wales Rally GB. Loeb took the rally lead from Latvala on the third stage, but lost it to Hirvonen by 0.4 seconds on stage six. However, Hirvonen soon went wide, spun and broke his radiator, which in turn caused severe engine problems. As he was unable to restart, Loeb secured his eighth consecutive world championship. This title moved him ahead of seven-time champions Michael Schumacher and Valentino Rossi in terms of major motorsport championships won. While running in second place behind Latvala, Loeb retired from the rally due to a road section collision with a spectator who had driven his car on the wrong side of a narrow road.
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