Int. Rally Driver/Gregor Grant: Loeb

Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb has been honoured at the AUTOSPORT Awards after being named Rally Driver of the Year and receiving a Gregor Grant Award for outstanding achievement.

AUTOSPORT readers voted the Frenchman Rally Driver of the Year for an incredible seventh time, while his Gregor Grant Award comes off the back of the Citroen driver rewriting almost every record in the sport’s books.

He won nine times in 2012, including a streak of five mid-season rallies in succession. He was fastest on 71 stages – 12 more than any other driver – and sealed his record ninth crown on home soil.

Loeb, who received his award from Le Mans 24 Hours legend Tom Kristensen, said: “Nothing changes for me in terms of how much I want to win nowadays.

“The first world title was special and the 2010 and 2012 ones were very nice though because I won them in the town where I was born, in front of my family and friends.”

Loeb began rallying in 1995 at the age of 21, but by 2001 he had claimed the Junior World Rally Championship and finished second on his maiden outing in a WRC machine.

He took his first outright WRC win in Germany in ’02 and his maiden title in ’04.

Loeb has won every world title since, but announced earlier this year that he will play only a part-time role in the WRC next year as he seeks to focus on circuit racing with Citroen’s proposed World Touring Car programme from 2014.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/int-rally-drivergregor-grant-loeb

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