Sebastien Loeb Racing aiming for third win this year

With the WTCC Teams Trophy title secured since the race in Portugal, Sébastien Loeb Racing did not rest on its laurels during the last round in Argentina. Indeed, Tom Chilton gave the team its second overall win in the World Touring Car Championship, following on Mehdi Bennani’s success scored in Hungary. The two men also dominated the privateers’ class - the Moroccan driver in front of British contender - while French racer Grégoire Demoustier, who had shown progress at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo, is now looking to demonstrate that again at the Twin Ring Motegi. The Sébastien Loeb Racing team has a stranglehold on the WTCC Trophy.

Mehdi Bennani still manages to score some good points both in the overall standings - currently competing for a final podium - and in the WTCC Trophy, as prove the two third places he achieved in Argentina. He is currently 23 points ahead of his teammate, with only four rounds to go before the end of the season.

Finally, Grégoire Demoustier completed his best qualifying session of the season in South America, only six tenths of a second off the 10th place in Q2 - i.e. a pole position in the Opening Race. "My prime goal will be to confirm my performances as part of that exercise, and to try to reach the Top-10", the French contender says. "For that I’ll have to deliver a better performance in Q1 in order to make the most of an extra set of tyres - which wasn’t the case last time. If that doesn’t happen in Japan, I hope to achieve that by the end of the season anyway. This is quite an exotic destination: the racing culture there is different from that in Europe. The most passionate public of the season is awaiting us in Japan. I’m delighted and it’s a real pleasure for us to race there."

The Citroën C-Elysée enjoyed the sweet taste of victory, last year, on the Twin Ring Motegi, as a factory car. Thus perhaps the highest step of the podium is not impossible to achieve for Sébastien Loeb & Dominique Heintz’s team!