Loeb takes Turkish honours

Subaru's Petter Solberg took the final stage of the day, the 5.6km Aspendos 2 test from Citroen's Carlos Sainz and Ford's Francios Duval. Team-mate Markko Martin was fourth ahead of the Subaru of Mikko Hirvonen and sixth-placed Gronholm.

Loeb was 12.9s adrift of Solberg's pace, but it didn't matter as he cruised to a 26s victory over Gronholm, the Finn himself fending off the challenge of a rejuvenated Solberg who also set the quickest time on the penultimate stage of the leg. Solberg closed the gap to just over 10s on Gronholm, but it wasn't enough to steal the second-place slot.

It's Loeb's second ever World Rally Championship win on gravel and the Frenchman couldn't be happier.

"The car was perfect," he said. "The preparation of the team was outstanding. I enjoyed the battle with Marcus (Gronholm), but will admit I was glad to relax a bit today."

Last year's victor Sainz was fourth overall in the second Citroen, but the Spaniard never really shone winning just one stage early on in the rally and continually dropped off the pace losing his chance of catching the top three.

While showing impressive pace on the first day and a half of the rally, Ford's Duval dropped back after SS10 following a driveshaft problem. Repairs were carried out but the same problem kicked in again on the following stage dropping the Belgian further and further back to finish the rally in fifth place overall.

Solberg's team-mate Mikko Hirvonen had his consistency rewarded with sixth place overall ahead of Ford privateer Janne Tuohino and Antony Warmbold. Mitsubishi's Gigi Galli was 10th.

It was clear early on the in the rally that the event was to become a three-horse race between Loeb, Gronholm and Solberg. Ford's Markko Martin was out of the equation early on after falling foul of the water feature for a second time.

The Estonian first hit trouble on SS4 when both he and Solberg injured their cars at the watersplash early on in the stage. The Norwegian damaged the front of his Subaru while Martin's bonnet flew up and the Estonian quickly reported overheating as a result of damage to the cooling fans.

Two stages later and Martin's watersplash jinx hit again, this time though he was unable to re-start the Focus. He managed to scrabble on for the remaining two days of the rally to secure a manufacturer's point for his team.

Gronholm's team-mate Harri Rovanpera also hit gearbox trouble on SS13 forcing him out of the rally. But at least he covered more ground than Mitsubishi's Gilles Panizzi - the Frenchman went out on SS4 with electrical problems.

With Martin out the way Loeb, Gronholm and Solberg powered on, the former increasingly pulling out a lead on Solberg with Gronholm even taking the overall lead on SS9 and SS10 following a 10 second jump-start penalty for Loeb. This was later rescinded to give the Frenchman a 26 second advantage over the Finn at the end of the second leg.

The turning point of the duel though occurred on SS11 when Gronholm lost 15 seconds to Loeb following a bizarre incident after the Finn ran over a metal bar that was fixed to a concrete post which punched a hole in the 307 and pierced the seat of co-driver Timo Rautiainen.

With just four stages left of the rally Loeb could take it relatively easy as he left Gronholm and Solberg battling it out for second. The Finn revealed that he was lucky to finish the event at all after suffering from gearbox problems in the latter stages.

"It's been a tough event," Gronholm admitted. "Generally it has not been too bad a rally for us, but the gearbox problem on the penultimate stage was a bit of a drama for us. Thanks to the advice of the engineers we were able to fix it rapidly, but we have been certainly made to work hard for our second place here!"

The Frenchman's win means he has extended his lead in the championship on 53 points, nine ahead of Solberg with third-placed Martin on 34 and Gronholm two points adrift of the Estonian on 32. Sainz is fifth on 24 points with Duval hot on his heels on 23.

Citroen has also extended it lead with 80 points, 15 ahead of Ford. Subaru is third on 59 while Peugeot is eight points adrift in fifth. Mitsubishi has 11 points.