Loeb wants more

World champion Sebastien Loeb has warned his rivals he has no intention of dropping the pace after setting a new record with victory on the Rally Argentina, his sixth consecutive triumph.

The Citroen driver broke rallying’s record for successive wins with his fifth and he has now set his sights on raising the bar yet again.

He said: “It wasn’t easy. You only have to look at the gaps to see that. I can tell you I pushed very hard right up to two stages from home.

“This may be our seventh win of the year, but it only strengthens our resolve to win more. We want to do even better.”

Loeb effectively secured victory with the fastest time on yesterday’s first stage, leaving his rivals with only two full stages in which to make up around half a minute.

Petter Solberg and Marcus Gronholm pushed hard to take a win apiece before two short superspecial stages completed the rally.

Having made it to the final hurdle with his lead intact, Loeb was never likely to lose out over the final two stages, which took a combined four minutes to complete, and he held on to win.

The Frenchman cruised through the final few miles to win by 26.1 seconds from Peugeot driver Gronholm, with the Subaru of Solberg a further 39.2secs back in third.

Loeb’s win puts his 27 points clear of Solberg in the championship with seven rallies left this season.

Toni Gardemeister stayed out of trouble on the last day to bring his Ford home in fourth with Harri Rovanpera taking fifth for Mitsubishi.

Markko Martin scored sixth place in the second Peugeot while Francois Duval finally shook off his poor form to take seventh.

The Belgian was dropped for two rallies by Citroen after failing to score points in five of his six rallies with the team but he was back on the scoreboard yesterday with seventh place. Manfred Stohl’s privateer Citroen completed the top eight.

In the production class, Manxman Mark Higgins moved up to second in his Subaru as Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah won at a canter.