Loeb dominates in Germany again

The four-time champion has won Germany's round of the World Rally Championship every season since it joined the calendar in 2002, and this weekend he duly led home another Citroen one-two in this year's event.

This year's result had the added bonus of moving Loeb back into the points lead, as his title rival Mikko Hirvonen could only finish fourth.

Hirvonen had managed to take the fight to Loeb on the opening day - keeping the Citroen in sight even though Loeb took all the day one stage wins.

However on Saturday morning the Finn was less confident with his Ford's handling, and not only lost touch with Loeb, but was passed for second by Citroen number two Dani Sordo.

The two Citroens proceeded to command the second half of the event. Even after both Loeb and Sordo turned the boost down to conserve their engines for the other two events they must be used for, the factory C4s remained among the fastest stage times. By the end of the rally, Loeb was 47 seconds ahead of Sordo and one minute and 20 seconds clear of the rest of the pack, despite neithe driver having pushed hard since Saturday lunchtime.

Third ultimately went to returnee Francois Duval, whose podium finish raised the Stobart Ford team's spirits after Gigi Galli had crashed heavily on Friday and suffered a broken leg.

Duval gradually picked up pace over the first two days and then moved up to third when Hirvonen suffered a puncture late on Saturday. That dropped the factory Ford driver three seconds behind Duval's satellite car, but they were allowed to go head to head in a straight fight on the final morning, and Duval had the pace to not only defend his podium, but to pull away - ultimately beating Hirvonen by 10.1 seconds.

It was a poor weekend for the works Ford team in the end, with Hirvonen's teammate Jari-Matti Latvala only able to finish ninth. The Finn, who still lacks asphalt experience, had climbed into the top five before rolling his car on Saturday morning and falling to 10th. A pair of punctures later in the event then stymied his fightback.

Subaru duo Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson took fifth and sixth on the WRC2008's first asphalt event, having been evenly matched until Atkinson was delayed by suspension problems earlier today.

Henning Solberg (Stobart Ford) and Urmo Aava (Team Estonia Citroen) completed the points scorers. Aava lost time with a spin on Saturday morning, before recovering strongly and closing on Solberg throughout the final morning.

The Estonian began the final stage just four seconds behind Solberg, but despite out-pacing his rival around the Circus Maximus superspecial, he ultimately fell short by 1.6 seconds.

Leading finishers:

Pos  Driver        Car      Time
 1.  Loeb          Citroen  3h26:19.7
 2.  Sordo         Citroen   +   47.7
 3.  Duval         Ford      + 1:20.0
 4.  Hirvonen      Ford      + 1:30.1
 5.  P Solberg     Subaru    + 2:35.3
 6.  Atkinson      Subaru    + 4:45.9
 7.  H Solberg     Ford      + 5:36.2
 8.  Aava          Citroen   + 5:37.8
 9.  Latvala       Ford      + 6:17.2
10.  Gardemeister  Suzuki    + 7:16.8