Loeb and Ogier retired at the rally in Portugal

the french sebastien loeb Y sebastien ogier were forced to retire before the end of the first day of the Rally de Portugal, according to their respective teams.

Loeb, 48, a nine-time world champion who drove part time for the M-Sport Ford team in Portugal, crashed into a guardrail after taking control of the morning race, setting the fastest time on the SS4 in Arganil.

“After losing a tire on the SS5, Sébastien Loeb stopped on stage. The crew will retire for today,” M-Sport said on Twitter.

“Sorry …” Loeb said in a sober Twitter post, accompanied by a photo of his car showing the right rear wheel detached from the axle.

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

For its part, sebastien ogierSi, the eight -time world champion and has a free contract with Japanese manufacturer Toyota, was forced to throw the towel at the SS7 shortly after winning the SS5 in the Lousa hills. The 38-year-old was punctured in SS6 and again in SS7.

“Sébastien Ogier and Benjamin Veillas retired from SS7 and retired for that day because they no longer had a spare tire,” Toyota said on Twitter.

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

If the two Sébastiens start again on Saturday, they will face a huge penalty, which will make victory impossible on the often treacherous Portuguese roads.

The morning started with a strong performance from British driver Elfyn Evans (Toyota), who set the fastest time on the hilly SS2 in Lousa and again the fastest on the SS3 in Gois. By the end of the SS7, especially demanding for tires, British Elfyn Evans (Toyota) led the classification with a seven -second advantage over Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and 14 seconds over championship leader Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota).