Reigning World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb is only one event away from clinching this year's series after storming onto the top of the podium in Spain yesterday.
He won the Rally of Spain on Sunday for the fourth year in a row to extend his lead in the world championship to 12 points and put him within reach of his fifth WRC in his native France.
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Loeb will be given all the support next weekend that the Citroen team can muster to take him to the title on their home event now less than seven days away.
In Spain, the Frenchman beat Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo into second while Mikko Hirvonen, who is second in the overall standings, could only finish third after his team-mate Francois Duval eased off to let the Ford No.1 pick up a valuable point which could just make the difference if Loeb hits problems in successive rounds.
After France next weekend there is the Rally of Japan and WRGB in December. |
Welshman Gareth Jones (right) had a good run before a puncture dropped him down the results, reports Gary Jones.
"Gareth finished 18th overall he had a puncture on SS7 and dropped around 3 mins changing the wheel but he is now looking forward to Rally Corsica next weekend." |  | |
Final positions
| Rally of Spain | 2008 | 1. S Loeb/D Elena
| Citroen C4 | 3hr 21min 17.4sec | | 2. D Sordo/M Marti | Citroen C4 | 3hr 21min 42.3sec | | 3. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen | Ford Focus RS | 3hr 22min 19.9sec | 4. F Duval/P Pivato
| Ford Focus RS | 3hr 22min 28.2sec | 5. P Solberg/P Mills
| Subaru Impreza | 3hr 24min 44.8sec | | 6. J-M Latvala/M Anttila | Ford Focus RS | 3hr 25min 21.2sec | | 7. C Atkinson/S Prévot | Subaru Impreza | 3hr 25min 22.3sec | | 8. A Mikkelsen/O Floene | Ford Focus RS
| 3hr 26min 37.0sec | | 9. M Wilson/S Martin | Ford Focus RS | 3hr 29min 00.6sec | | 10 B Tirabassi/F Gordon | Subaru Impreza | 3hr 30min 22.4sec |
| WRC Drivers | | WRC Manufacturers | | 1. S Loeb 96 | | 1. Citroen Total 159pts | | 2. M Hirvonen 84pts | | 2. BP Ford Abu Dhabi 132pts | 3. D Sordo 59pts
| | 3. Subaru 80pts | | 4. C Atkinson 42pts | | 4. Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 55pts | | 5. J-M Latvala 37pts | | 5. Munchi's Ford 22pts | | 6. P Solberg 36pts | | 6. Suzuki 20pts |
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Next weekend the action moves across the Mediterranean to Corsica.
The rally is again based in Ajaccio with the action held over stages close to the island's west coast. Each leg comprises a different loop of stages used in both the morning and afternoon.
Most of the roads are familiar to competitors from last year, but the opening two legs each include a test not used for several years and the final day's stages have been reversed from 2007.
The first and last legs head south of Ajaccio with the middle day's competition stretching north of the town. The three legs are all of similar distance and drivers face 16 stages covering 359.02km in a route of 1094.36km.
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©Image GARY JONES RALLYPICS.CO.UK
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●The British Rallycross championship round at Pembrey last month will be shown on Motors TV on Wednesday night at 10pm and repeated over the next fortnight.
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