Citroen's Sebastien Loeb has extended his lead in the World Rally Championship standings with victory in the rally of Italy on Sunday.
Citroen pilot claims 64th victory with Italy win
Citroen's Sebastien Loeb has extended his lead in the World Rally Championship standings with victory in the rally of Italy on Sunday.
The Frenchman finished 11.2 seconds ahead of second-placed Mikko Hirvonen to open up a seven-point gap over the Finn at the top of the overall table.
Loeb had expected a tough race, being the first man on track, which meant he would be clearing a line through the dusty gravel roads of Sardinia for subsequent drivers.
But the seven-times world champion set competitive times from start to finish on the way to his 64th world championship victory.
Hirvonen had pushed Loeb hard on Friday but lost over 50 seconds when he suffered a puncture whilst battling closely with his rival for the lead.
The Finn produced a stirring fightback before a mistake on stage 16 cost him dear and Loeb admitted it had been a hard weekend at the wheel.
Hard fight
"Leading from nearly the start that's really a good job," he said. "Mikko was pushing very hard behind so we really had to take big risks all the time.
"We lost time in some places because of the cleaning but we took it back in some other places. It was really a hard fight."
Hirvonen picked up three points for winning the race-ending power stage, which limited the damage to his title hopes.
"It's been a really good weekend," he said. "Even though we got a puncture earlier in the rally I'm very pleased and it's great to get the three power stage points."
Privateer Citroen driver Petter Solberg fought back to claim third place after losing around 40 seconds with a turbo problem on stage two.
And Loeb's team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who had arrived in Italy chasing a hat-trick of wins, was forced to settle for fourth after he hit a rock and broke his rear suspension on the penultimate stage. Mads Ostberg was fifth for Stobart Ford.
Disappointing
Mini suffered another bad day on their return to the world championship when Kris Meeke failed to start the day after retiring with a sticking throttle on the previous two days.
A crash, caused by the problem, on the opening day had cost the Northern Irishman any chance of points.
"It's disappointing but we don't want to risk what happened on Friday happening again," said the 31-year-old."There's a bigger picture."
Team-mate Dani Sordo of Spain offered Mini some cheer, finishing around three-and-a-half minutes behind Loeb in sixth overall.
Mini are appearing in selected rallies this year before making a full return in 2012.
Ott Tanak (MM Ford) took seventh place and victory in the S2000 class, while Juho Hanninen (Red Bull Skoda), Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford) and Nasser Al-Attiyah (Barwa Ford) completed the top 10
The next race is the rally of Argentina on May 26-29, the sixth round of the 13-event season.
