Sébastien Loeb: "My spotter just forgot to tell me to go for the joker lap."

PHOTO CREDIT: Peugeot Sport

Sébastien Loeb's remarkable run of podium finishes came to a close in Norway, after he was eliminated in the semi-final (taking 4th position in semi-final 1).

As a result of an unfortunate team error, he failed to take the joker lap in Qualifying 3 – which is punishable with a 30-second time penalty. “We made a strategic mistake in a qualifying heat with Sébastien, which cost us hugely. As this is rallycross, we paid the cost not once but 3 times," said Peugeot Sport Director, Bruno Famin. 

Loeb showed great speed throughout the weekend and is still 2nd in the drivers’ championship [31 points behind the championship leader.]

"It was a difficult weekend. We’ve ended up scoring 13 points, which isn’t amazing. We lost the most time and points when we didn’t do the joker lap, and that cost us a lot," said Loeb.

"My spotter just forgot to tell me to go for the joker lap; but if you’re a spotter, this is just the sort of thing that can happen once in your life…maybe!," the Frenchman explains. "So it shouldn’t happen again."

Sébastien Loeb reflects on all the positives rather then reflecting on the negatives. "The whole team is putting together a very good job," he adds. "Apart from that, everything went quite well with the car. 

"We had a good pace and although it was difficult to be in the lead, we were part of the leading group, so we’re up there.”

Team Peugeot Total confirmed that the latest evolution to the car could be introduced during the next round in Sweden.