Rally Wales GB - Loeb's title, Hirvonen's rally

Eurosport - Mon, 03 Dec 09:10:00 2007

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb secured his fourth world rally championship in a row with a controlled drive to third place on Rally GB.

The 33-year-old Citroen driver's achievement equalled Tommi Makkinen's record, which has stood since 1999, and came after what he described as "difficult" event in which he was unable to push hard in case of making a silly mistake.

"To equal Tommi's record is incredible," said Loeb. "It's been a very good year."
Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen won the rally by 15.2 seconds from his Ford team-mate Marcus Gronholm, taking his third victory of the year.

It was the fourth victory of his career and came after he had set the fastest time on six of the 17 stages and, more significantly, survived a final stage drama when he spun and lost 15 seconds to veteran Gronholm.

"We went off, it was not planned at all," said Hirvonen. "The season has been absolutely fantastic and to finish it like this is the best way possible.

"And I get to stand on the podium with Marcus too. Next year pushing Seb is my job, and I'm ready for it."

For Gronholm, second place on the 150th and last rally of his WRC career, spelt defeat in his long-running championship battle with Loeb.

"Okay, I am disappointed, but okay, it was a hard rally," he said. "We lost the title in Ireland. It was a great fight though and congratulations to Sebastien."

Fourth and fifth went to Subaru's Petter Solberg and Citroen's Dani Sordo, while Britain's Matthew Wilson made it home in a superb sixth place and scored his third successive points finish in his Stobart Ford.

Seventh and eighth went to a disillusioned Chris Atkinson in the second Subaru and to Manfred Stohl in a Kronos Citroen.

The third Subaru driver Xevi Pons, who described the event as "a disaster" came home ninth with Stobart Ford man Jari-Matti Latvala, who won both of the afternoon stages, snatching tenth place from Mads Ostberg by just 1.5 seconds on the final stage.