Loeb tips Sordo to shine at MINI

Sebastien Loeb has backed Dani Sordo to succeed at MINI and says the Spaniard deserves the chance to shine now that he is no longer under his shadow.

Sordo partnered Loeb at the Citroen Total World Rally Team from 2007 until the end of the 2010 season. They were also team-mates at Kronos Racing in 2006 when Citroen took a year out of competing to ready its C4 WRC for action.

Although Loeb and Sordo effectively enjoyed equal status at Citroen, because Loeb consistently outperformed his younger colleague during Sordo’s tenure with the French make, Sordo never appeared to have a genuine opportunity to be able to take the fight to the seven-time world champion.

Sordo and fellow MINI WRC Team driver Kris Meeke will give the squad’s John Cooper Works WRCs their world championship debut on Rally d’Italia Sardegna next month. While neither driver has been handed number one status, Sordo’s wider WRC experience is likely to be taken into account if a pecking order in the Prodrive-run team is required.

“He will have the freedom to fight for himself now and maybe he can be stronger because it’s a different situation for him,” said Loeb, the current WRC title leader. “I think it’s good for him to have this position in the team now he has a lot of experience. He was working for a manufacturer for a long time and for sure he can do some good things.”

Of their time together at Citroen, during which Loeb and Sordo became firm friends, Loeb continued: “I always was in front of him immediately at the start of the season and he accepted easily to be the second driver and score the points and do what the boss was telling him to do. He accepted I was faster than him and he didn’t try [to beat me]. He was doing his best but I was always in front.”