Sebastien Loeb 'could not avoid' road section collision that ended his Rally GB

The Citroen driver, who clinched his eighth World Rally championship on Friday after rival Mikko Hirvonen retired, was running second behind Jari-Matti Latvala with five stages to go when he had the incident with a car that ended up on the wrong side of the road.

"Between the two stages on the road section in a very narrow part over a crest, the car came in front and I went to the side and he went to the wrong side," Loeb told AUTOSPORT. "He had a bad reflex - he was Spanish so he drives on the other side of the road.

"We couldn't do anything so we just hit, not hard but the car was broken. When you have no water in the engine, you can't go anywhere.

"This is not the first time it's happened to me. It's bad luck sometimes."

He added that the other driver involved had been full of remorse.

"The Spanish guy was crying," said Loeb, "he was not so happy."

Although Loeb had been keen to try and end the year with another victory even though the title was secure, he was sanguine about the incident - admitting that with the championship resolved he could be fairly relaxed.

"I prefer it now after the result of the championship," he said.

"For sure it was a good battle but like I said my main target here was to win the championship. That was done, so it was okay.

"It's the only rally where I didn't need some points so it's the best one to have like this."