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Sebastien Ogier triumphs in Germany as Sebastien Loeb's winning streak ends

Sebastien Ogier ended Sebastien Loeb's unbeaten Rallye Deutschland run by cruising to an easy win after the world champion suffered a puncture while leading at the end of day two

Prior to this year, Loeb had won every time the German event had featured on the World Rally Championship calendar, notching up eight triumphs to date.

He looked set for number nine as he established a small lead over Ogier in the first half of the event, with Citroen then instructing its drivers to hold station as they had pulled out a big lead over their rivals.

But Loeb then lost over a minute with the puncture on Saturday's closing Panzerplatte stage, leaving Ogier to collect his fourth win of 2011.

"We knew before the start that it's a rally where my team-mate is so strong, and we got the victory, so it's a perfect weekend," said Ogier.

Loeb, who was at least able to pick up bonus points for winning the power stage, was sanguine about his winning run ending.

"It cannot be perfect every year," he said. "It's what I've said every year - one day it will stop. We did a good rally. We were a bit unlucky yesterday and there was nothing we could do for that."

Dani Sordo gave the new Mini project its first podium with an outstanding third place. He had gained the position as the works Fords suffered various issues - starting with an errant tyre choice for a damp Friday stage and then punctures for both cars - and then had enough pace to stay comfortably clear of fourth-placed Mikko Hirvonen.

Sordo's Mini team-mate Kris Meeke battled for fifth with Petter Solberg's Citroen for most of the weekend, until he had to retire with a loss of power just two stages from the end.

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala was hampered by punctures, an engine problem and a Saturday crash, and finally made it to the finish in 14th.

Kimi Raikkonen took his best result of 2011 so far in sixth, winning a rally-long contest with Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg. Dennis Kuipers had been in this fight too until his FERM Ford picked up a puncture. Armindo Araujo scored his first points since switching to a WRC Mini in eighth.

Leading finishers after SS19:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                   Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Ogier       Citroen                  3h32m15.9s
 2.  Sebastien Loeb        Citroen                     + 39.8s
 3.  Dani Sordo            Mini                      + 1m55.6s
 4.  Mikko Hirvonen        Ford                      + 2m43.7s
 5.  Petter Solberg        Solberg Citroen           + 3m48.0s
 6.  Kimi Raikkonen        Ice 1 Citroen             + 7m24.6s
 7.  Henning Solberg       Stobart Ford              + 7m45.9s
 8.  Armindo Araujo        Italia Mini               + 9m29.8s
 9.  Peter van Merksteijn  Van Merksteijn Citroen   + 10m01.6s
10.  Dennis Kuipers        FERM Ford                + 10m09.0s

Other WRC finishers:

11.  Matthew Wilson        Stobart Ford             + 11m31.7s
14.  Jari-Matti Latvala    Ford                     + 17m20.4s
17.  Ken Block             Monster Ford             + 19m45.6s
23.  Aaron Burkart         Stobart Ford             + 29m20.2s

WRC retirements:

     Kris Meeke            Mini                           SS18
     Daniel Oliveira       Brazil Mini                    SS18
     Mads Ostberg          Stobart Ford                   SS16
     Rene Kuipers          FERM Ford                      SS14

Power stage results:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                   Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Loeb        Citroen                     3m17.4s
 2.  Sebastien Ogier       Citroen                      + 2.0s
 3.  Petter Solberg        Solberg Citroen              + 3.0s
 4.  Jari-Matti Latvala    Ford                         + 3.0s
 5.  Dani Sordo            Mini                         + 5.5s

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