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We rounded a bend - although rounded is not quite the right word and nor is bend - and I saw a crowd of motor rallying fans gathered, cameras at the ready, in a cluster. I wondered, with absurd naivety, why they were there. And then, as the car launched off the top of a hill, I realised exactly why.

I did not know you could fly in a Citroën. I did not know it was possible for me to be too terrified to suffer my usual motion sickness. I did not know that one of the biggest adrenalin rushes I will experience is part of a daily, monotonous routine for the world's greatest rally driver.

Poor Sébastien Loeb; it would be unsafe for him to negotiate his training circuits at anything other than punishing speed. I was convinced if we had gone just a fraction faster we would have rolled but, in fact, had we gone a tad slower we might have crashed.

This weekend, Loeb is competing in the Rally of Spain on the Costa Daurada in a quest to record a fifth consecutive World Rally Championship (WRC) title victory. Loeb is the Michael Schumacher of rallying, having won a record 44 WRC challenges. If I was mildly impressed before I climbed inside his C4, then I was awestruck afterwards.

With a half-smile and an understandable degree of bemusement, Loeb hurtled me around a gravel test track in La Freneuse, just outside Paris. “I don't like cars,” I told him as I was strapped into the seat normally reserved for Daniel Elena, his co-driver.

“Then why are you here?” Loeb replied. I muttered something about bravery, which was stupid because I proceeded to exhibit an embarrassing degree of cowardice.

I screamed even before the drive began, as he took us to the start line. If my rallying experience had ended there, before the clock started, I would have been shaken and impressed.

Loeb was puzzled that this was my first rally experience. It was as illogical as booking a Michelin-star restaurant for a toddler's birthday tea or competing in a marathon, using the stroll to buy the morning paper as preparation. I had hardly earned the right to wipe his windscreen, let alone sit alongside him.

Actually, the Citroën team would not have allowed me to touch the windscreen. Never has a car been more lovingly sponged and caressed as Loeb's. As he swirled into the pitstop a gaggle of besotted red boiler suits rushed to check the oil and air and brakes and dust damage. They frowned as I climbed in and tutted at where I placed my feet.

They would have been livid if I had vomited, which, stupidly, had been my only concern. “Oh, you won't have time to be carsick,” one member of Loeb's team said. “You'll be too scared to be ill,” another said.

Scared? Why scared, I thought. But they were right. As Loeb flung us around the first chicane, I felt nauseous but almost instantly my brain reprogrammed and I found myself thinking that I needed to ignore the urge to vomit to be in a position to escape the car quickly when it crashed into a tree and burst into flames.

Throughout I was convinced that Loeb was driving faster than he had driven before, that he was punishing me for my lack of enthusiasm at the start. He shrugged later and said he had driven the same speed as always. “It is always the same,” he said, as if speaking of a dull wine list.

Our top speed was 170kph (105mph), which is almost unimaginable given that there were no straight lines. We were either swerving or flying. I was in a Looney Tunes cartoon. Our car sped off the hill and, instead of plummeting, floated long enough for me to think, “Has he done this before?” and “Will my helmet keep my brains from spilling when we eventually hit the ground?”

I took just one peek at Loeb's hands. He steered left when the track veered right, so I stopped looking and concentrated on squealing. Loeb said that I screamed a lot and the video should be worth watching. My hands were shaking half an hour later, but I could not stop smiling, either. Maybe next time I'll try map-reading for him. I will certainly be more respectful.

Sebastien Loeb off to a flyer

Sébastien Loeb, the world champion, began his attempt to secure a fourth successive victory in the Rally of Spain by winning all six stages yesterday. The Frenchman led Dani Sordo, his team-mate, by 15.8sec and, equally important, goes into today's stages with a 44.1sec lead over Mikko Hirvonen, the Ford driver, who started the race in second place in the world title standings, eight points behind Loeb.

Victory for Loeb tomorrow will put him well on the road to a record fifth drivers' title with only three events left.“The car was perfect and the feeling is good,” Loeb said.

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