Editing Sébastien Loeb (section)

====2008====
[[File:Loeb-rmc2008.jpg|thumb|left|Loeb with his [[Citroën C4 WRC|C4 WRC]] at the [[2008 Monte Carlo Rally]]]]
Loeb started the [[2008 World Rally Championship season|2008 season]] with a record fifth win in [[2008 Monte Carlo Rally|Monte Carlo]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Loeb clinches record Monte win |work=[[Autosport]] |url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64866 |access-date=27 January 2008 |date=27 January 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080130000124/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64866 | archive-date=30 January 2008 | url-status=live}}</ref> On the second rally of the year, [[2008 Swedish Rally]], he crashed out during day one. Although he re-joined the rally to collect manufacturers' points, the team later decided to retire him due to a damaged engine. After winning in [[2008 Rally Mexico|Mexico]] and [[2008 Rally Argentina|Argentina]], Loeb had a crash with [[Conrad Rautenbach]] on a road section in [[2008 Jordan Rally|Jordan]], from which he could only recover to take tenth place in the rally. He went on to win two events, and then finish close third to the [[BP Ford World Rally Team|Ford]] factory team duo [[Mikko Hirvonen]] and [[Jari-Matti Latvala]] at the [[2008 Rally of Turkey|Rally of Turkey]].

Loeb later notably won the [[2008 Rally Finland|Rally Finland]] ahead of Hirvonen. This was the fourth time in the event's 58-year history that a non-[[Nordic countries|Nordic]] driver won the rally, after [[Carlos Sainz Sr.|Carlos Sainz]] in 1990, [[Didier Auriol]] in 1992 and [[Markko Märtin]] in 2003. This started a string of five victories for Loeb. In [[2008 Rallye Deutschland|Germany]], [[2008 Rally New Zealand|New Zealand]] and [[2008 Rally Catalunya|Spain]], Citroën also took double wins as his teammate [[Dani Sordo]] took three runner-up spots in a row.

[[File:MG 2752 (3472x2259) (2940x1913) (300dpi).jpg|thumb|Loeb during the [[2008 Rally Argentina]]]]
Going into the penultimate round of the season, the [[2008 Rally Japan]], Loeb led Hirvonen by 14 points and needed a third place to secure the world drivers' title. Finishing behind Ford's Hirvonen and Latvala, Loeb broke [[Juha Kankkunen]]'s, [[Tommi Mäkinen]]'s and his own [[List of World Rally Championship records|record]] of four titles and became the first five-time world champion in rallying.<ref>{{cite news |title=Loeb clinches record fifth WRC title |work=[[Autosport]] |url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71928 |access-date=2 November 2008 |date=2 November 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206231735/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71928 | archive-date=6 December 2008 | url-status=live}}</ref>

After clinching the World Rally Championship, Loeb edged out Latvala to take his first [[2008 Rally GB|Wales Rally GB]] win, a feat which also helped secure his team their first [[List of World Rally Championship Constructors' Champions|manufacturers' title]] since 2005, from 2006 and 2007 victors Ford.