World Touring: Loeb angry with himself despite win

Sebastien Loeb says he left his home World Touring Car Championship round kicking himself for his race two mistake and the points squandered rather than celebrating winning race one.

The Citroen driver took his first WTCC pole at Paul Ricard, beating teammate and countryman Yvan Muller to the top spot with a final-sector time six tenths faster. He followed it up with victory from pole to flag after seeing off the first corner challenge from Muller, Ma Qing Hua and Jose Maria Lopez.

But the nine-time World Rally champion's strongest WTCC weekend so far ended with a crash in the finale, leaving Loeb third in the standings with 208 points, while Lopez resides on top with 282 points ahead of second placed Muller's 243.

"I am happy to have had the pole position and to win the first race – in France – was just magic," he said. "But then I am a bit disappointed because I know I had the performance to do a good second race.

"I had a good start in the second race and I am still losing points to my rivals for the championship. Going away I cannot say I am happy with the weekend."

The reverse-grid format for race two left all four Citroens on the periphery of the top 10, and while trying to make up ground Loeb got the exit of the chicane wrong, hitting the tire stacks that were placed to punish track limits.

"There was some tires on the exit of the corner and I didn't see anything because I was so close behind Ma," he said. "When he passed next to the tire it just appeared in front of me and I couldn't do anything.

"I damaged the left front. I felt the steering was a bit sideways, moving a little bit. I knew something was broken and there was no need to try to continue in this condition. There was no chance."

Originally on Autosport.com