In 2008, Sebastien Ogier clinched the Junior World Rally Championship title at the wheel of a Citroen C2. This weekend in Portugal, on only his 19th start in a World Rally Car, the 26-year-old beat the best in the world to secure the first WRC victory of his career.
Still soaked in champagne from his podium celebrations, Ogier reflected on his winning weekend:
Sebastien, congratulations on claiming your first WRC win! How does it feel?
“It’s difficult to explain the feeling now. I am very, very happy. A few weeks ago it was a big disappointment not to win [in New Zealand], but finally I knew it was a great performance and a great weekend in New Zealand. But this weekend was just perfect. We pushed very hard from the start to the last day and now I have the first victory. To get this against Seb [Loeb], it’s a very good feeling. He is the best driver in rally and the best in history; he is the reference for everybody.”
Yes, it is special to win against Sebastien Loeb, isn’t it…
“Yes. I was thinking, maybe it was good to wait in New Zealand and to get the first victory like this.”
What was it like when you crossed the finish line?
“It was a long wait before the start of the last Super Stage. Everybody started to congratulate me and I was saying: “Can’t you remember New Zealand: three corners to the end!” I prefer to wait to cross the finish line. It’s special and nice to win in the stadium with a lot of people and a lot of my friends.”
When you look back to this time last year, things were very different for you; there had been mistakes and retirements but now you have totally transformed into a consistently fast driver – when do you feel it all changed around for you?
“It was difficult last year, arriving in WRC without the experience is difficult. Before last year, I had never driven the big car, so it was difficult to adapt to the speed of the WRC. Okay it was a fantastic moment for us, but we progress with that and the team has helped us a lot. They continued to put confidence in us and I think I have to thank them. It’s thanks to Citroën that I’m here today. The second half of the (2009) season we progressed rally after rally – and this year so far it’s almost perfect. But it’s always developing. Now we have the win and now we have to progress on tarmac where we don’t have a lot of experience. So my next goal is to progress on tarmac.”
– © 2010 NORTH ONE SPORT LIMITED.
