back again. His team announced, Tuesday, that Frenchman Sebastien Loeb will return to the World Rally Championship (WRC) in Portugal from May 19-22, driven by M-Sport Ford, with the help of Isabel Galmich. Triumphant in Monte Carlo in his 80th G1 rally, Loeb, 48, will return to Portugal in the fourth round of the season, as part of the partial program he concluded with M-Sport.
Ten years after claiming his last nine world titles, a record, Loeb has been making some rallies in the World Rally Championship since 2013 but not an entire season. He missed in 2021, and returned to Monte Carlo in 2022 with a new record, becoming the oldest driver to win a World Tour (at 47 years 10 months).
In Portugal, where he won in 2007 and 2009, he will still be accompanied by France’s Isabel Galmich, who in Monte Carlo became the first female co-driver to win the WRC Rally since 1997.
“Driving a Puma is one of my fondest rally memories; winning the Monte Carlo after such a long time was incredible,” Loeb explained to M-Sport. This version of the rally is in 2019, so I have a base of notes for certain stages,” he said, adding that Portugal’s selection was “very ‘simple’ because he wanted to ‘do a rally on gravel’.”
Sebastien Ogier also present?
Another Frenchman who became a master of the discipline, Sebastien Ogier, could also be there in Portugal. Ogier was also a luxury independent after his eighth title last year, and Loeb answered in Monte Carlo, where he lost in the final kilometres, then Jabinca announced that his next rally with Toyota would undoubtedly be in Portugal.
Loeb is lining up this season in several disciplines, between the Dakar, the Ride Rally World Championship, the Extreme E Championship for electric cars, and at least the opening round, in Portugal at the end of April, from the German Touring Championship (DTM).
Loeb’s presence, and likely Ogier, will be the focus of the World Rally Championship, dominated after two rounds by young Finn Kali Rovanpera, ahead of the third round in Croatia this weekend.
