DirtFish can reveal Sébastien Loeb will make his return to the World Rally Championship on next month’s Acropolis Rally Greece.
Loeb had been tipped by DirtFish to return for the Acropolis following outings earlier in the season in Monte Carlo, Portugal and Kenya
Entries for the Acropolis, round 10 of the 13-round 2022 season, closed on Friday and Loeb and Isabelle Galmiche’s names are on the list.
It’s expected to be a six-car M-Sport Ford entry, with Pierre-Louis Loubet joining team regulars Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith and privateer Jourdan Serderidis also joining the fray.
Acropolis makes sense for Loeb to return. It’s a rally he’s won three times in the past and he will benefit from a low starting position on Friday on an event where the road cleaning effect is profound.
M-Sport team principal Richard Millener revealed that Rally Spain had initially been a target for Loeb, but a clash with the World Cross Country Championship made that impossible.
“We have an agreement in place to do a number of events this year, but with the understanding right from the start that the priority for Séb was the Cross Country Championship and with the changing around of the events after Morocco was altered, it means that Spain is not possible for Séb,” Millener told DirtFish.
“So we looked at some other options and Greece fitted, and we still think that could be a good opportunity for him. It’s another rally where you need to be fast but clever.
“It’s a rally where you need a strong car and I think we’ve got all the bits together that could hopefully find us in a good position.”
Millener was careful not to shut off the possibility of Loeb entering further rallies beyond Greece, but admitted it was unlikely.
“Not impossible but difficult, yeah,” he said when asked if Loeb could possibly go to New Zealand or Japan.
“It all depends on what happens in the Cross Country Championship still to be honest and his other commitments. We’ve said before we came late with our program so we’ve got to let him honor everything else he has in place first.”
