If there's one thing that cheers the crowd at Silverstone more than a British winner it's the sight of an all-conquering German grinding to a halt from a dominant lead. So a bad weekend for one Sebastian.
Part Le Mans racer, part rally car, all fast
The other one? Pas de probleme and even the considerable expectation on his shoulders couldn't hold down Loeb's Gallic shrug and utter demolition of
Pikes Peak
myth and legend. All he had to do was get his Peugeot up the mountain first and honour would be satisfied for the French brand with a fitting 25th anniversary celebration of Ari Vatanen's famous win there.
But this is Loeb. And he didn't just beat the competition. He destroyed them, beating the previous course record by 92 seconds. Not 9.2 seconds, not even nine tenths. A minute and a half. Before the race there was talk of the first breach of the nine-minute barrier. Loeb managed that by 46 seconds. To put his 8:13.878 into further context his next nearest rival, former record holder Rhys Millen, did a 9:02.192.
Not bad for a first attempt.
Loeb at least had the dignity to raise a sweat
Time for another impassive shrug and the next challenge in the shape of entry to the
WTCC with Citroen
next year. But how about this. Vettel's life is already less comfortable with a team mate with scores to settle,
nothing to lose
and little to prove hounding him for the rest of the season. How about Red Bull put their two star Sebs in their lead F1 cars and let some sparks fly for 2014? Loeb's driven a Red Bull F1 car before after all.
See the run here, Climbdance it is not but check out the views! Expect a rather more slick production from Red Bull before too long.
Oh, and Peugeot, about that Pikes Peak edition 208 GTI...
[Sources: Autoblog, Red Bull]