Sebastien Loeb has been working hard during the first half of the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship to challenge for the title and for the 2018 World RX of Sweden, the French driver was given an upgraded Peugeot 208 WRX.

However, whilst he was settling with the car at the iconic Hojes circuit, it seemed that lady luck was not on the Team Peugeot Total driver’s side during the first two qualifying sessions. Despite ending Saturday in sixth place overall, Loeb would hit trouble on Sunday that would delay his chances of a good result.

“I’m not so satisfied with the weekend, I have to say. I had a difficult Q1 and Q2. In Q3, I hit Timur Timerzyanov and broke my suspension, so I finished last in the heat. After Q4, I qualified for the semi-finals. With that place, you start on the outside of the ​second row, which isn’t the best position,” explained Loeb.

After he finished Qualifying in seventh place overall, this put Loeb into the Semi-Finals and gave him a chance to push the newer upgraded Peugeot towards a place in the Final.

However the nine time WRC Champion would lose out on making the final by the smallest margin of four tenths of a second. After finishing fourth in Semi-Final behind rival Mattias Ekstrom, Loeb rued the missed chance and looks forward to Canada for making up ground lost.

“So the race started off quite badly for me and didn’t really get any better. Our objective for the championship is to collect points and we didn’t get many this weekend. In the overall rankings, Johan Kristofferson is moving further away at the top and that wasn’t the goal either.”

“Overall, the updated PEUGEOT 208 WRX feels better than the previous one, but we ​still ​need to improve in the future. I think we have some good directions to work in now.”