Pressure off Loeb on gravel

The Citroen driver leads the World Rally Championship by 51 points from Sebastien Ogier - his nearest Ford rival Mikko Hirvonen is 65 points down.

Loeb has already talked of his desire not to push the limits on the next round of the series in Finland, and he has now admitted there's no pressure for him to win in Japan or Britain either.

"I feel well for the championship," said Loeb. "It was important for me to win in Bulgaria. At the moment we proved we are still a little bit faster than the others, so it looks good for the next three tarmac rallies. This does take the pressure off from the gravel rallies. I don't need to win these rallies. When I start a rally I always try to fight, but for sure it's less pressure for that.

"When I won in Finland, I said: 'Okay, I won, that's it'. I know the risk I had to take to do this and I was happy to win. I don't want to take that risk again, but that's what I say when I'm sitting here. When I'm in the fight it's not always the same - it was like this in New Zealand earlier this year when I was driving like crazy."

Following his dominant victory in Bulgaria, Loeb admitted he'd enjoyed his drive to third place in Auckland more than his 58th win.

"It was more exciting, the drive in New Zealand, but Bulgaria is satisfaction," he said. "I was in front with a good lead and could take some pleasure and drive through the stages and take the points - and have domination also. After the last two rallies where I didn't win, to be dominant like that it was nice."