Loeb wins Rally Ireland

As expected, five times World rally champion Sebastien Loeb has brought his Citroen C4 to victory in Rally Ireland today.

Sun, 01 Feb, 2009 - 16:16

As expected, five times World rally champion Sebastien Loeb has brought his Citroen C4 to victory in Rally Ireland today.

For two days he battled the rain as his opponents tried to stay with his unrelenting pace, in truth, they were only sporadically close.

Starting out today's five stages he had an advantage of one minute 9.1 seconds.

That afforded him to take the more cautious option of running on the winter tyre.

Although he did have a moment on the penultimate test when his Citroen drifted sideways for some distance, the reigning world champion duly took his second victory in Rally Ireland and with Dani Sordo second, it also completed a second 1- 2 for the Citroen team.

At the finish, Loeb's winning's margin was one minute and 27.9 seconds.

Mikko Hirvonen set most of the fastest stage times today, he was on the slick PZero tyre, but the Ford driver could do little to improve on his third place.

Loeb was delighted to open his account for the year with a win, to send out an ominous warning to his rivals.

"It's been a really tough rally but I'm very happy to take the 10 points," said Loeb.

"Tarmac rallies are especially important to me. This one has been tricky for everyone, but now we're here at the finish with maximum points. It's a good start to the season!"

Hirvonen, Loeb's principal title rival in 2008, was also happy to get his World Rally Championship challenge off to a solid start.

"It's a good start to the season," said the Finn.

"We had some problems this weekend, I was hoping I could fight with Sordo but maybe that will come another time. It's still a good start to my season. Now I'm looking forward to the next round in Norway."

The battle for fourth was intense and the overnight incumbent, Henning Solberg in a Ford Focus, had to yield to the Citroen of Australian Chris Atkinson by the midday service.

However, the pendulum swung back in Solberg's favour when Atkinson lost time on the first junction of the penultimate test where he lost vital time and subsequently had to be content with fifth.

Sebastien Ogier in a Citroen was sixth, followed by the Ford Focus of Matthew Wilson and Khalid Al Qassimi, who scored his first ever World Championship point was eight, he's was co-driven by Bangor's, Michael Orr.

Wexford's Eamonn Boland in a Subaru was ninth and the top Irish driver.

Estonian, Urmo Aava, who led at one point on Friday, denied Irish driver Aaron MacHale the final place in the top 10.

MacHale was 11th with Tim McNulty 12th, with Donegal's Shaun Gallagher winning Group N.

Although there was some confusion on the penultimate stage, it transpired to be nothing more than a glitch in the results system.

Alan Ring was a late retirement, his rally ending on the road section to the final stage. Gary Jennings came through to take second in the category.

1. S. Loeb/D. Elena (Citroen) 2h. 48m. 25.7s.

2. D. Sordo/M. Marti (Citroen) 2h. 49m. 53.6s.

3. M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen (Ford Focus) 2h. 50m. 33.5s.

4. H. Solberg/C. Menkerud (Ford Focus) 2h. 54m. 58.1s.

5. C. Atkinson/S. Prévot (Citroen) 2h. 56m. 17.6s.

6. S. Ogier/J. Ingrassia (Citroen) 2h. 59m. 09.7s.

7. M. Wilson/S. Martin (Ford Focus) 2h. 59m. 49.5s.