 Loeb clinched his fourth straight win in Turkey |
Sebastien Loeb won the Turkish Rally on Sunday to clinch his fourth straight win in the World Rally Championship. Citroen's world champion won 10 of the rally's 17 stages, finishing the final day 59.6 seconds ahead of Subaru's Petter Solberg.
Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm finished 15.7 seconds behind Solberg in third place.
After seven rallies, Loeb leads the championship with 55 points, ahead of Solberg on 42 points and Estonian Markko Martin on 38 points.
Peugeot are top of the manufacturers' standings with 72 points, ahead of Citroen on 68.
"I'm very proud of the team," Loeb said. "This was a fantastic job. It just goes to prove the solidity of the work that we've all been doing.
"I didn't feel especially threatened and this is what you achieve when you have the whole team working together."
The top three competitors were well ahead of the rest of the pack, with Spain's former champion Carlos Sainz back in fourth and 3:02.6 adrift of Gronholm.
Sainz, winner in Turkey two years ago, came out of retirement for a one-off appearance with Citroen as a replacement for Belgian Francois Duval.
The 43-year-old Sainz ended the rally 1:39.3 ahead of Peugeot's fifth-placed Martin.
The next race will be the Acropolis Rally in Greece on 24-26 June.
Final results after stage 18:
1. Sebastian Loeb (Fra) Citroen 4hrs 21mins 48sec
2. Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru at 59.6secs
3. Marcus Gronholm (Fin) Peugeot at 1:15.3
4. Carlos Sainz (Spa) Citroen at 4:17.9
5. Markko Martin (Est) Peugeot at 5:57.2
6. Toni Gardemeister (Fin) Ford at 8:07.3
7. Roman Kresta (Cze) Ford at 8:48.3
8. Gigi Galli (Ita) Mitsubishi at 9:38.9
9. Antony Warmbold (Ger) Ford at 11:26.7
10. Harri Rovanpera (Fin) Mitsubishi at 13:51.4
MMIX
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