24h Le Mans
Driver of the Toyota TS040 Hybrid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), St
Stéphane Sarrazin's journey these last 10 years has resulted directly from his time in rally, in the challenge organized in 2004 by the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile, in partnership with the Japanese manufacturer Subaru. That year, he won the France Rally Champion title and also finished fourth at the Catalonia Rally, the fourth round of the discipline's World Championship (WRC). This success brought him back to endurance in 2005 with the British team Prodrive, which defended Subaru's interests in rally and relaunched Aston Martin in the GT class in endurance. After having driven the Aston Martin DBR9 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005 and 2006, from 2007 to 2011, he joined Peugeot and matched Jacky Ickx's record for three consecutive pole positions in La Sarthe, before joining Toyota in 2012. During that period, he didn't abandon rally with several participations at the wheel of the Peugeot 207 S2000, 307 WRC, all while becoming a force to be reckoned with in endurance with four podiums at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and two Le Mans Series titles.
Stéphane Sarrazin won the Cévennes Rally at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta WRC which he will drive again November 6-8 at the Tour de Corse: "I am very happy about this success ! » says Stéphane Sarrazin. « My very first aim was to enjoy the rally, and that was absolutely the case, with some great special stages, sometimes very narrow and difficult to negotiate. I had to get familiar with the car and to find back a pace that is appropriate and specific to rally driving. But I had good feelings quite early on. We kept on attacking throughout the entire event and we did a great job. Jacques-Julien Renucci and I got on perfectly well, as always. First Motorsport did a fantastic job too. We managed to refine the setup whenever possible : it was important for us to do so because we have the Tour de Corse in mind."
