Loeb clinches Rally Catalunya win

Gronholm had been leading Loeb by around 10 seconds when he hit trouble late on leg one and fell back to 10th.

After that, Loeb only had to nurse his lead and keep an eye on the private Citroen Xsara WRC driven by home favourite and reigning Junior champion Dani Sordo. Loeb's final victory margin was 48.2 seconds.

Young Spaniard Sordo spent the majority of the rally in the top three. After Gronholm fell back, he enjoyed a comfortable gap back to the rest of the field and knew that trying to chase Loeb would be pointless. Sordo therefore settled for second place and his first ever overall WRC podium, to the delight of his home crowd.

The delayed Gronholm initially believed that fourth place would be his limit, but when Xavier Pons crashed out of third on Saturday afternoon a podium position was up for grabs. Gronholm moved past impressive privateer Alex Bengue to claim third on the final morning, setting a series of fastest stage times along the way.

Bengue decided not to try to fight Gronholm and instead concentrated on developing the set-up of the historically difficult Peugeot 307. He won an early battle with Skoda privateer Jan Kopecky, who was one of three Fabia drivers in the top ten. Fourth and fifth places were career-bests for Bengue and Kopecky.

Francois Duval's First Motorsport Skoda suffered from an alarming lack of brakes on the opening morning, but the Belgian charged back to sixth by the end of the rally.

The works Subarus salvaged points from a very difficult weekend. Petter Solberg and Stephane Sarrazin were unhappy with the Impreza throughout the rally, with most suspecting that the Pirelli tyres were the main problem.

Solberg finished a distant seventh, while Sarrazin snatched eighth on the final stage when Gilles Panizzi's Red Bull Skoda slowed dramatically with a mystery problem.

"We changed something on the car, and I could do nothing," was Panizzi's enigmatic summary.

Mikko Hirvonen was struck by the same turbo problem as his Ford team-mate Gronholm on leg one, and at virtually the same place in the stage. He recovered to ninth ahead of Panizzi. Subaru's third driver Chris Atkinson was 11th after going off the road on Saturday afternoon.

There will be no podium celebration or press conference after the finish as a mark of respect for Jorg Bastuck, the German co-driver killed in an accident on Friday morning.

Bastuck had been trying to change a wheel on the Citroen C2 he shared with Aaron Burkart, when Barry Clark's Ford Fiesta crashed at the same place and struck Bastuck. He was airlifted to hospital, but succumbed to his injuries.

Loeb's victory extends his championship lead to nine points over Gronholm. With Manfred Stohl having a low key run to 12th after a massive testing crash, and Solberg only picking up two points, Sordo is now third in the WRC standings.

Rally Catalunya leading results:

Pos  Driver    Make     Time
 1.  Loeb      Citroen  3h 22:01.7
 2.  Sordo     Citroen  + 48.2
 3.  Gronholm  Ford     + 1:45.8
 4.  Bengue    Peugeot  + 2:01.9
 5.  Kopecky   Skoda    + 2:57.2
 6.  Duval     Skoda    + 3:37.8
 7.  Solberg   Subaru   + 3:48.2
 8.  Sarrazin  Subaru   + 4:36.4
 9.  Hirvonen  Ford     + 5:01.6
10.  Panizzi   Skoda    + 5:04.4
11.  Atkinson  Subaru   + 5:33.9
12.  Stohl     Peugeot  + 5:48.4
13.  Aigner    Skoda    + 9:37.3
14.  Vojtech   Peugeot  + 17:16.9
15.  Wilson    Ford     + 17:57.4
16.  Latvala   Ford     + 18:12.3
17.  Prokop    Citroen  + 24:02.3
18.  Casier    Renault  + 24:44.6
19.  Meeke     Citroen  + 25:07.7
20.  Piatto    Renault  + 25:29.2