Loeb leads the way again
World champion Sebastien Loeb completed a dominant victory on the Acropolis Rally today to secure his fifth-consecutive win.
The Citroen driver, who competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours last weekend, won every stage yesterday to set up a final-day cruise through the remaining four stages.
Loeb eased off today, winning just one of the stages, to ensure he collected maximum points to extend his world championship advantage to 23 points over Subaru’s Petter Solberg.
Loeb won the rally by one minute 36.2 seconds from Ford’s Toni Gardemeister, who equalled his best-ever result with an impressive second place.
Former world champion Carlos Sainz finished on the podium in his last world championship rally before resuming his retirement.
The Spaniard’s consistent approach paid off and he earned valuable points for Citroen in the manufacturers’ championship.
Marcus Gronholm was unable to recover the time he lost due to a driveshaft failure yesterday and came home fourth for Peugeot.
Former Subaru works driver Mikko Hirvonen was the surprise of the rally, taking two more stage wins today in his privateer Ford to cement fifth position.
The Mitsubishi pair of Harri Rovanpera and Gianluigi Galli brought home points for sixth and seventh respectively while Markko Martin slipped down the order to eighth as he continues to find the going tough at Peugeot.
