Gronholm: title race now wide open

The soon-to-retire Finn led the standings by 10 points after beating Loeb by 0.7 seconds in the WRC's closest-ever finish in New Zealand last month.

But Loeb's back-to-back wins in Spain and Corsica have now brought him back onto Gronholm's tail with three rallies remaining in Japan, Ireland and Great Britain.

"It will be really tight for the next three rallies and I have no idea who will be world champion," Gronholm said.

"A four-point lead is nothing, especially with three rallies coming."

He was relieved to at least finish second to Loeb on the Tour de Corse, having been pushed back to third by Citroen number two Dani Sordo in Spain.

"I could not win so second was the next best result," said Gronholm. "I only conceded two points to Loeb on what is one of his strongest events of the season and I still lead the championship after two consecutive weekends on asphalt, which is my least favourite surface.

"I really had to drive quite hard because Dani Sordo was pushing behind us and I couldn't afford to let him get near.

"On the first day I was really close to Seb but I couldn't match him on Saturday, although I feel my asphalt driving is more consistent than last year.

"I could not do better here but Japan will be really hard now. Winning there would help me a lot but I'm not feeling too much pressure at the moment."

Despite ultimately winning by 23 seconds, Loeb said the French event had been a stressful experience - especially when he struggled in third place during the opening morning.

"It wasn't a particularly restful weekend and we didn't get off to the best of starts," he said.

"However, along with the technical team, we responded well after making some small adjustments to the set-up of our C4. I felt much happier with my car from Friday afternoon on and that enabled us to take the lead, pull clear and ultimately win.

"We leave Corsica with two more points than our rival in the drivers' championship and the last three rounds promise to be very exciting indeed."

Citroen team boss Guy Frequelin admitted to some frustration over Sordo's result, as he had hoped to reduce Gronholm's lead to two points by repeating Citroen's Spanish one-two.

"They have moved closer to the leader in the drivers' championship and it's a just a shame that Dani and (co-driver) Marc (Marti) didn't succeed in splitting Seb and Marcus in the final results," Frequelin said.

"Dani perhaps lacked a little experience to adapt quickly enough to the terrain."