Q&A with Sébastien Loeb

At the end of the opening day in Jordan, last year’s rally winner talks tactics and his chances of repeating his 2010 result.

You deliberately slowed down on today’s final stage (SS12), but unusually you did this in the middle of the stage rather than near the end - was that to try and tempt your opponents to keep on pushing?

“Yes, because with the gap we had I was quite sure that if I didn’t do anything tomorrow I’m cleaning the road with three cars just behind. In this situation I thought my chances of even a podium are limited so I had to try something. I tried to give them some time - and maybe it’s motivating them to keep their position.”

“Some did it while Jari-Matti came behind me, but I lost a bit more [time] that I expected. I stopped in the stage for maybe ten or eleven seconds but after that I couldn’t follow the rhythm of Seb [Ogier]. He was increasing the lead, I did a few mistakes and that’s it.”

“Finally, I prefer to be in this position than first on the road with three cars behind. I’m not in the best position to win tomorrow - I think even in the worst of the first four cars - but we will see.”

You say you lost more time that you had expected - how far behind Sebastien Ogier did you want to be?

“I didn’t know how much he wanted to keep his position but I thought under 25sec he will not keep it. I think I lost five seconds too many. I wanted to be around 25 seconds behind.”

You have won this event before, so you know how to do it. Do you think that will give you an advantage on the final day?

“No, because last year I was able to make big differences in the long stage [Jordan River] and this year I wasn’t. It’s difficult to say why. I know road cleaning is important but everything is possible. Even Petter [Solberg] has a good chance - he has a good position.”