Loeb clinches Rally Ireland victory

The Frenchman led a commanding Citroen one-two ahead of teammate Dani Sordo, with Ford's Mikko Hirvonen a distant third.

Such a result looked highly unlikely on Friday morning when Loeb chose the wrong tyres for the sodden Irish roads and lost 42 seconds to early leader Jari-Matti Latvala in the opening stage alone.

Latvala then damaged his Ford in SS2 and had to retire, allowing Stobart Ford's Urmo Aava - who, like Latvala, had chosen extreme winter tyres - to take a shock lead.

But Loeb was soon into his stride, and soon after switching to 'snow' tyres at the first service, he moved into the lead and proceeded to pull away, winning by nearly a minute and a half.

"It was a really tough rally, I'm really happy to take these 10 points here," said Loeb.

"Tarmac is important for me, and a difficult rally like this is tricky for everyone. I could have made a mistake, but no, we are here and we won the rally. I will try to continue like this."

Sordo was equally comfortable in second after the chasing Hirvonen was slowed by power steering problems on Saturday morning.

"It's a really, really good result to start the year," said Sordo. "I'm really happy for me and for the team - it's a great weekend. The conditions were really bad and there were some crazy stages with the water."

Hirvonen said he was content with a podium in Ireland - and vowed to fight back in Norway in a fortnight.

"We had some problems and a wrong tyre choice, so I'm pleased with the six points," he said. "Of course I was hoping I could fight with Sordo, but maybe another time. Norway next - I can't wait, it's definitely going to be a different story there. Now we start fighting for the title."

The battle for fourth came down to the final stages. Henning Solberg moved up into the position after his teammate Aava crashed on Friday afternoon, but Chris Atkinson was closing in as he acclimatised to the Citroen Junior C4, having lost a lot of time with a broken windscreen (after failing to secure his bonnet) and then an accident on Friday.

Atkinson finally overhauled Solberg this morning, only to go off the road again in the penultimate stage, losing over a minute and handing fourth back to the delighted - and surprised - Solberg, who traditionally struggles on asphalt.

"It's a big step for me, I am very, very happy," said Solberg.

The Norwegian had decided to switch back to the normal slick tyres for the final loop in a bid to re-pass Atkinson, who stayed on the winter rubber.

"At the end we made a mistake and I don't think we would have beaten him on these tyres," Atkinson said. "That's life, we've got to be happy with fifth."

Atkinson's Citroen Junior teammate Sebastien Ogier recovered from an over-cautious start and a Saturday morning mistake to take sixth, while the third Junior C4 of Conrad Rautenbach crashed out of a promising fifth just before half-distance.

Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford) and Khalid Al Qassimi (Ford) completed the scorers - with the latter taking his first ever point.

Ninth-placed Eamonn Boland was the best of local privateers, ahead of the recovering Aava, although Gareth MacHale had run in the points before a variety of dramas on Saturday, and Niall McShea had held a staggering third place overall in his S2000 Proton after SS1 before hitting electrical problems. He rejoined under Superally for day two, but crashed out.

Aaron Bukart finally claimed his first Junior WRC win with a comfortable advantage over Martin Prokop. Burkart had won a tough early battle with Hans Weijs Jr, who then had a huge accident, while Prokop lost too much ground with a day one engine problem and an error.

Leading finishers:

Pos  Driver             Car      Time
 1.  Sebastien Loeb     Citroen  2h48:25.7
 2.  Dani Sordo         Citroen  +  1:27.9
 3.  Mikko Hirvonen     Ford     +  2:07.8
 4.  Henning Solberg    Ford     +  6:32.4
 5.  Chris Atkinson     Citroen  +  7:51.9
 6.  Sebastien Ogier    Citroen  + 10:44.0
 7.  Matthew Wilson     Ford     + 11:23.8
 8.  Khalid Al Qassimi  Ford     + 14:07.9
 9.  Eamonn Boland      Subaru   + 15:23.4
10.  Urmo Aava          Ford     + 15:35.4