Loeb felt the pressure to win

Loeb beat Tom Kristensen 2-0 in the superfinal, after edging the Dane in the Megane Trophy cars and inheriting the victory in the WRC Xsara cars after Kristensen slid off into the barriers.

Loeb's French team had gone out in the first round of the Nations Cup part of the event, and said that with 60,000 partisan fans cheering for him throughout, he didn't want to disappoint.

"I was under pressure and it was a big pressure," Loeb said. "I know that a lot of people were rooting for me.  I lost immediately in the Nations Cup and in the next race in the Race of Champions it would have been very bad to lose so I really had that pressure to do well.

"It is a very nice to finish a season like this. To win another race and here, in the Stade de France and with a lot of people like this it is good.

"I'm happy to win but it is a completely different feeling to winning a rally. In a rally you always feel as if you will win and you know before you win and do a stage such as this that normally it should be OK, but here you only know at the at the moment you win. And that is a good feeling especially with so many people here."

"I did want a better battle with Kristensen but only if I won! But the moment I saw him crash, I was a bit frustrated because I know for the people it would have been a more interesting fight. That is why I won and that is also important because that is part of the race."