Loeb tightened his grip on the world championship in Sardinia

The defending world champion stretched his lead at the top of the standings in the process and is now 31 points ahead of main rival Marcus Gronholm.

Gronholm had led the race in his Ford before crashing out on stage eight, handing control of the race to Loeb.

Ford's Mikko Hirvonen took second ahead of Spain's Dani Sordo, who consolidated his third place in the title race.

Loeb has now taken 66 points from seven races this season and is now just one win away from equalling Carlos Sainz's record of 26 individual rally victories.

The 32-year-old Frenchman conquered the dust and gravel of Sardinia in three hours 54 minutes and 18.9 seconds.

"I thought we would be hard pushed to beat Marcus this weekend," he admitted afterwards. "He was really quick and had no luck at all."

Hirvonen's excellent finish moved him to sixth in the championship standings on 15 points.

The final day of the race started with the withdrawal of Italian driver Gianluigi Galli, who pushed Sordo hard for a place on the podium on Saturday.

Galli had experienced troubles during the return to service after the final stage of the second leg and did not re-enter the race on Sunday.

Loeb had no need to push himself on the final day and started with a pair of second-place finishes behind the Subaru of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg.

Norwegian Solberg, who started the day in eighth overall, won two stages on the third leg to go into the final stage just 10.7 seconds behind sixth-placed Jussi Valimaki.

In the last stage, however, his steering broke to wipe out all his previous gains and finish just outside the points.

Results from the Rally of Italy:
1. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 3:54:18.900
2. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) Ford +02:41.400
3. Daniel Sordo (Spain) Citroen +03:27.700
4. Xavier Pons (Spain) Citroen +05:28.300
5. Jussi Valimaeki (Finland) Mitsubishi +07:08.800
6. Kristian Sohlberg (Finland) Subaru +07:36.900
7. Manfred Stohl (Austria) Peugeot +08:18.400
8. Francois Duval (Belgium) Skoda +09:45.800
9. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru +10:19.900
10. Gareth Mac Hale (Ireland) Ford +14:59.500

World championship standings:
1 Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen 66pts
2 Marcus Gronholm (Fin) Ford 35
3 Dani Sordo (Spa) Citroen 30
4 Manfred Stohl (Aut) Peugeot 20
5 Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru 18
6 Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 15
7 Gian-Luigi Galli (Ita) Mitsubishi 11
8 Xavier Pons (Spa) Citroen 10
9 Alexandre Bengue (Fra) Peugeot 9
10 Chris Atkinson (Aus) Subaru 8