Loeb wins it for Citroen

Sebastien Loeb claimed a perfect 10th victory of the season to give Citroen the manufacturers’ title in style on Rally Catalunya today.

The world champion won just one stage on the final morning but with a comfortable advantage courtesy of two dominant days, he was never threatened.

Loeb led home a Citroen one-two with Francois Duval erasing memories of a costly crash a week ago in Corsica by taking a mature second place, albeit one minute 21.9 seconds behind his team-mate.

Citroen only needed six points to be sure of the manufacturers’ title while rivals Peugeot needed a one-two to keep the fight alive going into the final round in Australia.

Marcus Gronholm’s retirement overnight ended any slim hopes Peugeot had. The Finn was running third but a leaking radiator caused a blown engine after yesterday’s last stage and he was unable to start today’s action.

That lifted ex-works Subaru driver Mikko Hirvonen, now driving a private Ford, into a superb third place.

A high attrition rate among the top drivers helped some of world rallying’s lesser lights break into the upper echelon of the leaderboard, with independent Citroen driver Xavier Pons arning a stunning fourth.

Ford’s Roman Kresta recovered from problems yesterday to claim fifth place while Peugeot rookie Nicolas Bernardi moved up to sixth.

Anthony Warmbold, in another Ford, was seventh with Jan Kopecky eighth for Skoda, giving them consecutive points finishes for the first time this season.

In the junior championship, Daniel Sordo was crowned champion in style with a comfortable victory. The Citroen driver was the only man not to encounter severe problems and he won by five minutes from Suzuki’s Kosti Katajamaki.

Guy Wilks, who was the only man able to deny Sordo the crown, crashed out while Kris Meeke’s troubled rally ended with two points for seventh.