Loeb clinches Rally Argentina victory

The event had begun badly for the double champion when he spun his Kronos Citroen Xsara in the first stage of Friday morning, dropping to seventh.

But a combination of Loeb's comeback charge and problems for his main rivals saw the Frenchman back in the lead by the end of the day, and he extended his advantage throughout leg two before driving conservatively through today's final stages.

Petter Solberg came home second, 44.6 seconds behind Loeb, following a troubled rally that included a brush with a gate post on Friday, several punctures, a broken gearshift paddle, time consuming poor tyre choices, and a small power steering glitch during the final stages.

Third place was a remarkable result for Gigi Galli considering he had never driven his Peugeot 307 on gravel prior to the start of the event. He almost jeopardised the place by driving much too conservatively in SS19 this morning, but soon picked up his pace and stayed ahead of the chasing Manfred Stohl to secure his first ever WRC podium.

Stohl grabbed fourth from his teammate Henning Solberg by going quickest of all in SS19. The Austrian's speed convinced Solberg that he had would not able to retake the place, and he duly cruised through the remaining stages to be sure of fifth.

Unfortunately for Solberg, he would lose that result with an eleventh hour drama, as his 307 came to a halt with an apparent clutch failure during the second superspecial. With SupeRally penalties applied for not finishing the final stage, Solberg will fall to seventh.

"There was only one kilometre left..." said Solberg. "I think the clutch broke, I'm not sure. The car just stopped moving. I hope I can still get at least one point."

Chris Atkinson looked set for an easy run to sixth until he was penalised one minute for speeding in a service area this morning. That dropped him behind Dani Sordo and set up a superspecial showdown between the pair, as they entered the stadium just 1.1 seconds apart.

Both pushed to the maximum, and Sordo managed to extend his advantage to 3.6 seconds, moving up to fifth in the process thanks to Solberg's disappointment.

The battle between Stobart Ford teammates Luis Perez Companc and Matthew Wilson also came down to the last stage. Local hero Perez Companc had overhauled event debutant Wilson on Saturday afternoon, and went into the stadium only three seconds in front - an advantage he immediately relinquished by stalling on the startline in his head to head contest with Atkinson.

The format of the finale saw the podium ceremony held after the top eight runners had gone through, with cars from ninth onwards running after the presentations. Wilson will therefore have to wait to try and snatch eighth from his teammate, although Perez Companc has resigned himself to losing the place thanks to his stall.

Having retired from the lead due to differential problems on Friday afternoon, Marcus Gronholm could only recover to 10th under SupeRally regulations, and admitted to being "bored" by Sunday morning.

At least he was still rallying, unlike his Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen, who could not restart after suffering a bent valve shortly after Gronholm's retirement.

Loeb's fourth consecutive victory, combined with Gronholm's misfortune, means that the reigning champion is now 21 points clear in his bid for a third consecutive title.

Leading results:

Pos  Driver         Make            Time
 1.  Loeb           Citroen   4h 06:51.3
 2.  P Solberg      Subaru     +    44.6
 3.  Galli          Peugeot    +  3:24.3
 4.  Stohl          Peugeot    +  3:40.0
 5.  H Solberg      Peugeot    +  5:40.2
 6.  Atkinson       Subaru     +  5:43.8
 7.  Sordo          Citroen    +  9:30.4
 8.  Wilson         Ford       + 10:34.6
 9.  Perez Companc  Ford       + 10:52.3
10.  Gronholm       Ford       + 14:08.7