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The nine-time champion retired from the lead on Saturday, but sees no merit in restarting on Sunday
Sébastien Loeb doesn’t plan to return for the final day of action on Acropolis Rally Greece, having retired from the lead with a broken alternator on Saturday morning.
Monte Carlo Rally winner Loeb had ended Pyrgos, Saturday’s first stage, with a 19-second lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
But approaching the stop control of the stage, Loeb’s Ford Puma Rally1 came to a shuddering halt, stalling moments after a low battery warning flashed up on his dashboard.
Unable to fix the alternator problem that had triggered the drained battery, Loeb and co-driver Isabelle Galmchie retired after the SS8 finish control.
While the problem could be fixed by M-Sport’s mechanics for Sunday, Loeb had little interested in heading back out on Sunday.
“Three stages, cleaning the road…” he said when queried about returning for the final day.
With no championship battle in play for either Loeb or M-Sport, powerstage points offered little incentive to restart either: “To take the points to who?” Loeb queried.
It’s also worth considering that M-Sport only has four days to reprep its Puma Rally1s before shipping off to New Zealand for the rally at the end of the month, so that was likely also a factor.
There had been a 38-minute gap between crossing the finish line on SS8 and the required check-in time for SS9, with a seven-mile liaison section to complete in between.
That left Loeb and Galmiche with very little time to attempt to get the errant alternator belt back onto its pulley, as too many other parts needed to be removed to access it.
“It was very difficult to access [the alternator]; we had to take off the inside of the wheel, the protection, then from the top I had to remove the big fan,” Loeb explained.
“But to remove this one I had to disconnect the tube between the turbo and the intercooler. And then I had also to take off some other things. So at the end, we were out of time.”
Despite realizing he wouldn’t make the next stage before running out of time and being automatically retired from the rally for exceeding maximum lateness, Loeb picked up tools anyway and continued working.
“Finally I decided to continue after, to finish the job correctly, so I take off everything and make the alternator loose to be able to put the belt and make it strong.
“Then I finished the job, rebuilt everything, and started. It was downhill so we could start by rolling.
“Engine started, 200 meters, switch off. I checked and the belt had jumped off again.”
As it transpired, all of Loeb’s hard work hadn’t paid off and even if he’d got the belt back on in time, he would have still retired anyway.
“I think the bearing of the alternator broke,” Loeb surmized. “The two wheels were not in the same position and I think the alternator was not turning. So it was blocked and when the engine was running, the belts jumped off.”
Loeb’s retirement was his third form his four WRC starts this season. In Portugal he crashed into a wall when leading (before an engine problem manifested itself the following day) while in Kenya an oil leak forced to him stop when just 1.9s off the lead.
Tags: Acropolis Rally, M-Sport, Sebastien Loeb, WRC, WRC 2022
Publish Date September 10, 2022 DirtFish https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2022/09/WRC-GREECE_LOEB_20220907-0458.jpg?fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=520&ixlib=php-1.2.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main September 10, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 DirtFish, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subaru Impreza STI Sedan & Hatchback Features
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels aiding in the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: Our Subaru STi’s use a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder Turbo-charged Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru STi is equipped with an advanced all-wheel-drive system with an active center differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. In order for the wheels to fit on our Subaru STi’s, we had to convert them to a Group N brake setup.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels to aid the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: The Subary BRZ is powered by a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru BRZ is rear-wheel-drive and equipped with a limited slip differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. Luckily with the Subaru BRZ’s, the stock brake system is more than adequate for our programs.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Below you will find an aerial view of the DirtFish property. Go through and check out the courses you’ll be driving on during your driving program! View everything from The Slalom all the way up to our longest course, the Advanced Mill Run!