Sebastien Loeb. Photo / Sarah Ivey
World Rally Championship Citroen driver, and six-time world champion, Sebastian is on a roll heading to New Zealand for round five of the 2010 FIA WRC series. Loeb has won three of this year's four events and former world champ Petter Solberg, in his privately-entered Citroën C4, is Loeb's closest
rival.
The opening race of the season in Sweden was won reasonably comfortably by BP Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen but Loeb reined supreme in Mexico, Jordan and Turkey.
Getting to New Zealand for the 40th anniversary of a world event on these shores has been one big headache for the WRC teams after the Iceland volcano's ash clouds grounded planes all over Europe, forcing most teams returning from Turkey to travel by bus and ferry.
Another headache for the BP Ford team, in particular, is how to stop Loeb running away with this year's WRC title when the French star now holds a 40 point lead.
Before Turkey Loeb said,"The way the 2009 season panned out, reminds us that you can't lose any points along the way."
In 2009, Loeb won the first five rallies, and Hirvonen won the next five. With the title fight going down to the very last event in Great Britain. Loeb prevailed to win his sixth world title by just one point from the Finnish driver.
Solberg's return to top form with his own Citroën C4 puts the former Subaru star into the mix as a possible victor in New Zealand. Citroën Junior Team driver Sébastien Ogier must also be considered. Ogier is consistently mixing it up with Loeb, Solberg and Hirvonen with commentators saying Ogier's performance in Turkey, where he took the lead on stage three and maintained it throughout the second day, actually made the 2008 Junior World Rally champ the most deserving winner.
Hirvonen's Ford team-mate, Jari-Matti Latvala is brilliantly fast but one wonders if he can keep it all on the road and add to his two WRC victories.
But odds are, it's going to be one of the Citroën drivers standing on that top step to receive the bronze Kiwi statuette again in 2010.
