Sebastien Loeb won his third Rally of Catalunya in succession

Frenchman Loeb, 33, finished ahead of his Spanish team-mate Daniel Sordo, with main title rival Marcus Gronholm of Finland back in third place.

Loeb led from the first day in his Citroen C4 to pick up his sixth win of the season and 34th, a record, in all.

Loeb is now just six points behind Gronholm in the race for the WRC drivers' championship.

Sunday saw Loeb add three more stage wins to make it eight out of 16 in Spain and add to his wins so far this season in Monte Carlo, Mexico, Portugal, Argentina and Germany.

"We couldn't really hope for any more than this, with Dani slipping in between Marcus and myself, and I didn't need to take any unnecessary risks," he said.

The competition moves on to Corsica next weekend which, like Catalunya, is run on asphalt - Loeb's preferred surface.

Final standings in the Rally of Catalunya after 16 stages:1. Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen 3:07:06.2
2. Dani Sordo (Spa) Citroen 3:07:20.0
3. Marcus Gronholm (Fin) Ford 3:07:50.4
4. Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 3:08:27.7
5. Francois Duval (Bel) Skoda 3:09:20.2
6. Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru 3:09:58.0
7. Jari-Matti Latvala (Fin) Ford 3:10:31.2
8. Chris Atkinson (Aus) Subaru 3:11:02.5
9. Xavier Pons (Spa) Mitsubishi 3:12:03.3
10. Henning Solberg (Nor) Ford 3:16:55.8

Drivers' standings:
1. Marcus Groenholm (Fin) 96
2. Sebastien Loeb (Fra) 90
3. Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) 74
4. Daniel Sordo (Spa) 39
5. Petter Solberg (Nor) 34