The World Rally Championship has long been about the two Sébastiens: Loeb and Ogier. Between them they hold just about every record in the book, and even head the top-two in the 2022 standings despite neither driver contesting a full season this year.
But on Rally Sweden in two weeks’ time, neither of the all-conquering Frenchmen will be lining up on the start-line. It’s the first time that has happened since Rally GB 2006.
Loeb began his WRC career in 2001, winning the first-ever Junior WRC title as well as claiming a standout second overall on Rally Sanremo in a Citroën Xsara WRC, before competing sporadically in 2002 and full-time thereafter when Citroën’s presence on the rallies became permanent.
Ogier’s WRC career began seven years later where he too won the JWRC title in a Citroën and made his way into the top class with the French marque.
Loeb called time on his full-time career at the end of 2012 but has still made 17 appearances since, but from 2013 onwards (after a near-full season in an S2000 Škoda) Ogier has been a full-time presence in the world championship until 2021 when he too decided to step back.
Both of the all-time greats were at the 2022 season-opening Monte Carlo Rally – and indeed were involved in a thrilling victory fight that was eventually settled in Loeb’s favor – but Sweden isn’t part of either of their partial campaigns for M-Sport Ford and Toyota respectively.
How seismic is this moment? Here are some quick statistics about what has happened in the WRC since Rally GB 2006 and Rally Sweden 2022 that give a bit of an idea:
| Rallies held | 193 |
| Seasons completed | 15 |
| Rally winners | 15 |
| Champions | 3 |
At the end of 2006, Ogier had just completed his first season of rallying ever in a Peugeot 206, while Loeb had been crowned world champion for a third successive time – even after missing the last four rounds of the WRC season (Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and GB) due to breaking his arm in a mountain biking accident.
Here’s what happened the last time neither Loeb nor Ogier was on a WRC entry list:
For the first time in three years (since 2003), Rally GB was restored as the final round of the season, bringing with it the torrid and foggy conditions that had always traditionally characterized the event.
There was a strange feel to the rally though as Loeb had already clinched the drivers’ championship in Australia despite not being there, as rival Marcus Grönholm rolled on day one and could only finish fifth, making it impossible for him to better Loeb’s season total.
Ford had also clinched the manufacturers’ title for the first time since 1979 on the previous round in New Zealand, meaning that there wasn’t much at stake as the teams landed in Swansea for the final round.
But having played second fiddle to his more illustrious team-mate for much of the season, Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen was relishing the opportunity to challenge Grönholm on an even keel without any team strategy coming into play.
Maybe I go off the road or maybe I can fight with him, who knowsMikko Hirvonen on fighting team-mate Marcus Grönholm
“There’s no pressure,” said Hirvonen before the rally. “We secured all the titles and medals in New Zealand so what’s left? Just fight with Marcus and Petter [Solberg].
“I’ll try, I’ll go for it for sure, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he added. “Maybe I go off the road or maybe I can fight with him, who knows.”
Grönholm chuckled when it was put to him that Hirvonen was keen to beat him: “I hope he is not doing that,” he said. “But he will try, yes, for sure. And he will be quick I’m sure.”
Subaru’s Solberg had won Rally GB for the last four years from 2002-05 but Grönholm was the clear favorite for victory, having led the previous round from start to finish and establishing himself as Loeb’s only real credible challenger throughout the season.
But Hirvonen’s challenge was absolute. Ford’s number two blasted through the opening split of the opening stage – Port Talbot – at the exact same pace as Grönholm’s similar Focus RS WRC ’06 and in fact had got a narrow 0.2s by the second split point.
However, his pre-event words would come back to haunt him. He was quick but he also went off the road – albeit minorly – on the penultimate corner of the stage, Drifting wide on the sweeping right-hand bend, Hirvonen clouted some stones with the door of his Focus but looked to have got away with it.
Grönholm netted the stage win but Hirvonen was in touch, just 3.7s behind, although had already noticed some damage to his car.
“In the second last corner we went wide and hit the stones sideways really, really hard,” Hirvonen told the stage-end reporter, who entertainingly had to conduct the interview through co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen’s door as Hirvonen’s wouldn’t open.
“Really, arrgh, stupid mistake. We were doing so well and now we have some damage in the car so it’s going to be difficult now.”
Hirvonen’s challenge wouldn’t be as strong thereafter. Grönholm won both SS2 and SS3 to carve open a 19.1s advantage over his team-mate but at least Hirvonen was still in the running.
“The steering is not straight, we have a lot of toe-in on the rear wheels so it’s not turning well on the left,” he said at the end of the third stage.
“But then again it’s very good on the right. So it’s 50:50,” he added with a smile.
But that smile was soon wiped from Hirvonen’s face when he got back to service. Scrutineers had a look at the damage to his Focus WRC and discovered that the rollcage was damaged. Hirvonen had no choice but to retire from the rally.
“It’s really a shame, I would have loved to have finished the rally,” he said. “Even with what happened in the first stage I really enjoyed it, all the three stages, so a shame it ended like this.
“We would have had a good, maybe 1-2 finish on the rally and ended the season like that but it didn’t happen.”
Hirvonen’s smile returned when the interviewer joked that it wasn’t a good way to finish, as it was obvious that he was going to beat Grönholm. Hirvonen laughed: “Yeah shame, but then again we do it next year, no problem!”
And true enough, that’s exactly what Hirvonen did in 2007. But as for the 2006 contest, it was almost over as quickly as it had begun.
“It was a shame for Mikko that he couldn’t continue, now it will be a long rally,” admitted Grönholm at the end of SS4 – the first stage of the rally he was defeated on.
“We will see, maybe Solberg is pushing like hell so I have to fight, we don’t know yet.”
Grönholm wasn’t wrong; Solberg was trying – “trying hard”. He had looked set for a stage win on SS1 before losing five seconds with a stall, but in truth, his biggest battle looked to be with OMV Peugeot’s Manfred Stohl who won SS4.
A joint-fastest time with Grönholm on SS5 and outright quickest on Friday’s final stage was enough to earn Solberg a 22.3s advantage over his rival, as Stohl chose the wrong compound of BF Goodrich for his 307 WRC.
That should’ve been enough for Solberg to breathe easy and perhaps even concentrate on mounting a challenge on Grönholm, who was looking for his first Rally GB win since 2001.
But if you remember anything about Solberg’s 2006 season, nothing ever went smoothly. Determined to assert his dominance, he carried too much speed into a sweeping and tightening right-hand bend and ran off the road into a ditch.
“I tried very hard from the start and I did a mistake over a crest,” he later described.
“I had a lot of understeer and that’s it, got stuck,” he said, tapping the steering wheel in frustration. “We got stuck.”
Spectators came to Solberg’s aid and freed his Impreza S12 WRC, but not before he had lost over 25s – and second place – to Stohl.
Undeterred, Solberg went on an attack on the next two tests and stole the position he had lost back from Stohl as the competition paused for Saturday service. But was Stohl worried? Not a bit.
“We don’t go to the absolute last gear because today the stages are shorter,” he said. “You cannot win massive time out of it, so we try just to keep close to Petter and tomorrow is still a long way to go.”
It was a wise strategy befitting of a driver who was in the form of his life, fresh from a podium on Rally New Zealand and poised to grab fourth place in the championship from Citroën’s Dani Sordo.
Stohl nicked 0.2s from Solberg on the second pass of Crychan to trail by 3.6s, but Solberg’s rally was about to unravel again. Over an asphalt section of the Epynt stage, Solberg took a cut at a square-right and immediately Phil Mills’ growl “noooo” spelled trouble.
“Puncture?” Mills asked Solberg as they crossed the line. “Something more, the steering and everything,” came the response.
The Subaru pairing performed some emergency repairs on the road section before the next stage, but as soon as they started it was clear that they were in trouble. Beginning Halfway 0.1s up on Stohl and Ilka Minor, they ended it some 48s behind and destined for third place.
Solberg didn’t give up though and delivered a fright to Stohl on Sunday morning when he bossed Brechfa and grabbed 16.1s from the Peugeot. But a puncture and subsequent spin – when his front wheels were hooked into a cambered apex by a puddle – undid all of Solberg’s hard work and killed any hope of a sensational comeback.
Jari-Matti Latvala scored a strong fourth spot on his first rally with the latest Focus WRC, scoring his and Stobart M-Sport’s best WRC result in the process, with the top Xsara WRC of Xavier Pons – uniquely running #1 on the car without being world champion as Loeb’s replacement – in fifth.
Chris Atkinson scored sixth for Subaru ahead of Sordo who lost fourth, fifth and sixth gears on Saturday. François Duval took a private Škoda Fabia WRC to eighth overall ahead of Harri Rovanperä and Jan Kopecký also in Škodas.
But out front Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen had become the forgotten men, earning a lead north of a minute when Solberg ditched himself on Saturday morning and measuring the pace accordingly with no need to push.
Aside from a brief overshoot and spin on the final day, Grönholm was untroubled and went on to secure his seventh win of the season (a personal record for him) that moved him onto 25 career wins, level with Colin McRae and third on the all-time list.
That also made Grönholm the most successful Finnish driver in terms of rally wins; Tommi Mäkinen achieving 24 victories throughout his career.
“A lot of statistics now!” smiled Grönholm.
“It’s good, it’s a good feeling. Very good after my first year with Ford but to finish one point behind Séb, it’s a little bit [frustrating], you know. But otherwise it would have been fantastic.”
Sadly Rally GB 2006 could hardly be called the same, but with far more jeopardy in terms of championship permutations and it being just the second competitive event for the Rally1 era, all signs point to the next WRC event without either Loeb or Ogier being far more thrilling.
