Loeb secures fourth Catalunya win
Sebastien Loeb moved closer to another World Rally Championship title by clinching a dominant victory in Spain
The Citroen driver's fourth consecutive Rally Catalunya win puts him 12 points ahead of championship rival Mikko Hirvonen, who finished third, with three rounds to go, including Loeb's home rally next weekend.
Citroen's number two Dani Sordo backed Loeb up in second place, the two C4 drivers having assumed one-two formation from Friday morning and never relinquished their grip on the event.
"It was really, really good for me," said Loeb. "I cannot say it was easy - I had to push hard to make the difference with Dani and try to increase my lead. I tried my best all the time on the first two days to have a good lead, and today I slowed down a bit. It's been a perfect weekend."
Hirvonen moved up to third this afternoon as his Ford teammate Francois Duval obeyed instructions to back off and let the title-chasing Finn gain the final podium position.
There had been little to choose between Duval and Hirvonen on Friday, but the former picked up speed on day two and was 20 seconds ahead before backing off for Hirvonen.
"It's one point extra," said Hirvonen. "It's been a very difficult weekend so I really have to thank Francois, he was a real team player. This was the best I could get."
Duval had no qualms about handing over third, and believes he will be better placed to fight for the win at the next event.
"It's been a good weekend for me," he said. "I am more confident for Corsica."
Ford did come closer to Citroen's pace on Saturday and Sunday, partly due to some set-up progress, but also because Loeb and Sordo eased off and began testing set-ups for next weekend's Corsica event. With Loeb also a strong favourite for a fourth victory at home, Ford's title hopes are fading.
Urmo Aava looked set for fifth in his semi-works Citroen having finally overhauled Petter Solberg in the antepenultimate stage after a rally-long battle, only for the Estonian to break his suspension one stage later.
"We cut one corner too deep and broke the lower arm," explained Aava, who eventually finished 38 minutes behind the leaders.
"But I think we broke something else because we changed the lower arm and started the next stage very slowly, but then something else broke and we went off again.
"Our aim was to drive to the finish and park. We didn't manage to, and we're very sorry about that. But this is rallying, what can you do? We can only try and be better in the future."
That allowed Solberg to claim fifth for Subaru after all, while his teammate Chris Atkinson ended up seventh as Stobart Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala passed him in the final loop of stages and grabbed sixth by just 1.1 seconds.
"It's been a tough rally for us definitely," said Solberg. "It worked a bit better in Germany, so we just have to learn from this rally."
Having been demoted from the works team to the satellite Stobart squad this weekend as he struggled for confidence on asphalt, Latvala was delighted with sixth.
"It's a fantastic result," he said. "I am really happy because it didn't look so good yesterday. It seems a little bit lucky because unfortunately Aava went off the road and he was doing a really good job. But I'm happy that we managed to win the fight with Atkinson because we have had three really black rallies. I'm happy, relieved and looking forward to Corsica."
Aava's retirement elevated the impressive Andreas Mikkelsen into the points. The young Norwegian Ford privateer had run as high as fifth on Friday morning before slipping back.
Matthew Wilson took an untroubled ninth in the second Stobart Ford, with Brice Tirabassi finishing a cautious 10th in his first WRC appearance in a third works Subaru.
Outside the top ten, the Munchi's Ford duo Henning Solberg and Federico Villagra lacked pace on asphalt and finished 11th and 12th, while Suzuki's hopes of points ended early when Per-Gunnar Andersson crashed and Toni Gardemeister suffered a time-consuming puncture on Friday morning.
Leading finishers:
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h21:17.4 2. Dani Sordo Citroen + 24.9 3. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 1:02.5 4. Francois Duval Ford + 1:10.8 5. Petter Solberg Subaru + 3:27.4 6. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 4:03.8 7. Chris Atkinson Subaru + 4:04.9 8. Andreas Mikkelsen Ford + 5:19.6 9. Matthew Wilson Ford + 7:43.2 10. Brice Tirabassi Subaru + 9:05.0
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