When Loeb won the second stage of Saturday morning in Spain, the 12.27 kilometres of Riba-roja d’Ebre, it was his 802nd stage victory in the World Rally Championship, eclipsing Alen’s all-time record of 801 stage victories that has stood since the 1990s. However, Loeb took 150 WRC starts to reach this benchmark, whereas Alen took 129.
“Sebastien is a fantastic driver so I’m very pleased it is him who has beaten the record,” Alen told WRC.com. “I’m an old man now; in fact I am surprised that it has stood for so long! But everything comes to an end, so this is normal. And Sebastien has done a great job this year: in fact not just this year but all the other years as well. He is the person who everyone has to beat.”
Alen’s last WRC event was Rally Finland in 2001, where he finished 16th in a privateer Ford Focus WRC to mark his 50th birthday. Since retiring from competition, Alen has focussed on development driving for a number of different car manufacturers and managing the career of his son Anton.
Behind Loeb and Alen, Carlos Sainz is the driver with the third-highest number of stage wins (756). After Loeb, Petter Solberg has the second-highest number of stage wins among the current drivers with 412 fastest times.