Loeb dominates again in Germany

Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb won a record-breaking sixth consecutive Rally Germany title to cut the gap in the race for the championship.

The 33-year-old Frenchman moved eight points behind championship leader Marcus Gronholm with victory in his Citroen C4 WRC on the asphalt of the wine-producing Mosel region, near Trier.

Loeb becomes the first driver to have won an event in six successive years - something never before achieved in the history of the WRC – having won the Trier event on each occasion since it joined the WRC calendar in 2002. It was his fifth triumph of the season and the 33rd of his career.

Gronholm (BP Ford) had a disastrous final stage - going off the road and damaging the rear of his Ford Focus as he tried to fend off the challenge of Francois Duval (Citroen), who won the duel for second place.

The Finn, who limped back to the service area in order to be classified in fourth place, ended up behind team-mate and compatriot Mikko Hirvonen after finishing one minute 21.8 seconds behind Duval on stage 19 – the 26-year-old Belgian won all five of today‘s tests in his Xsara.

Gronholm, however, stays top of the drivers’ standings with six races left, beginning in New Zealand on August 30.

Duval, a former Ford and factory Citroen driver with one WRC victory to his name, made his comeback after a two-year absence by taking a surprise lead on the opening day, but he was overhauled by both Loeb and Gronholm on day two.

Gronholm cut Loeb‘s lead on day three, but the Citroen driver seemed content to consolidate his position, hoping for a mistake from his title rival in his battle with Duval.

And two-time world champion Gronholm, who was imperious in winning the last round in Finland, made an uncharacteristic error while trying to protect a 5.6second advantage over Duval in the final test.

Jan Kopecky (Skoda) was fifth, with Petter Solberg (Subaru) sixth, Toni Gardemeister (Citroen) seventh and Jari-Matti Latvala (Stobart Ford) eighth.

British duo Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford) and Guy Wilks (Ramsport Ford) were ninth and 10th, respectively.

Three-time champion Loeb thanked Duval for pushing Gronholm to the limit.

“I must say thank you to Francois Duval because he was pushing incredibly hard,” Loeb said. “We just had to drive smoothly and take no risks today.”

Duval was thrilled with his second place.

“I pushed a lot today,” he said. “I’m very happy – it’s incredible.”

The Belgian claimed stage 15, with Australian Chris Atkinson (Subaru) second and Gronholm third, while Loeb was seventh, conceding six seconds to title rival Gronholm.

The Finn trimmed a further 2.8 seconds off the overall deficit in finishing 0.1seconds behind Duval in test 16, which saw Atkinson, a winner of three stages during the rally, crash into a wall and retire.

Duval triumphed in the Circus Maximus Trier 4.37-kilometre stage, with Loeb losing another 1.9seconds to Gronholm.

And Duval made it four successive wins with victory on stage 18 to cut the gap to the Finn.

But the real drama came in the race‘s final stage when Gronholm made an error which could prove costly as he conceded a valuable point in his bid to regain the world title.