Citroen's Sebastien Loeb clinched his third successive world rally win after dominating the Rally of Cyprus. The French world title holder took 14 of the event's 18 stages to add to his victories in New Zealand and Italy.
Austria's Manfred Stohl finished second in his privately-run Citroen, over four minutes back, with Markko Martin of Peugeot taking third place.
The final day saw Loeb win stages 13, 14 and 15. Tony Gardemeister took the 16th and 18th, and Martin the 17th.
"It's a very good thing to have scored three wins in a row," said Leob.
"It proves the strength of the Xsara, something that will be very important
with the gravel rallies in Turkey and Greece to follow.
 |  I felt that I could only lose the event rather than win it |
"It was amazing here in Cyprus, on very tough roads, that we had not one
single mechanical problem.
"I actually felt the pressure from early on when I started to pull clear as I
felt that I could only lose the event rather than win it."
Loeb hopes to keep his good run of for going, saying: "Looking ahead to the next two rallies, I don't know how competitive we will be. We will just have to wait and see."
Loeb won the rally without really having to force things, though it was a different story for team-mate Francois Duval of Belgium, who crashed out on Saturday.
Duval made a driver error and hit a tree on the 10th special stage, his car bursting into flames.
Neither Duval nor his co-driver were hurt but the accident did not help Citroen's chances in the constructors' championship.
With his fourth victory of the season, Loeb consolidated his lead in the drivers' standings while Peugeot held the lead in the constructors' race.
The poor condition of the roads, which had stones and even large rocks on them in places, hampered the drivers and gave mechanics a lot of work to do during the three-day race.
Rally of Cyprus results:
1. Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen 5:02:29.400
2. Manfred Stohl (Aut) Citroen +04:09.500
3. Markko Maertin (Est) Peugeot 04:41.900
4. Henning Solberg (Nor) Ford 05:15.700
5. Toni Gardemeister (Fin) Ford 07:37.300
6. Roman Kresta (Cze) Ford 10:17.400
7. Harri Rovanpera (Fin) Mitsubishi 12:18.700
8. Daniel Carlsson (Swe) Peugeot 16:03.200
9. Janne Tuohino (Fin) Skoda 16:46.300
10. Chris Atkinson (Aus) Subaru 27:01.500
MMIX
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