Loeb on his way to victory in the Acropolis Rally

Four-time world champion Sebastian Loeb moved to the top of the 2008 standings with victory in the Acropolis Rally.

The Frenchman, driving a Citroen, reached the finish 1 min and 9 secs clear of Petter Solberg's Subaru.

It was Loeb's fifth rally win of the season and 41st overall and put him one point clear of Mirkko Hirvonen in the race for this season's title.

Hirvonen finished third behind Solberg despite his suspension problems on his Ford Focus earlier in the event.

It was Loeb's second Acropolis victory and it was made all the more difficult thanks to the punishing track where excessive dust made visibility poor.

"I am happy to be in this position," said Loeb.

"The rally was very difficult and rough. Now we will see what happens in the championship. This year Acropolis was tougher than last year. We had to save the tyres and today we had to go slow in some places."

Henning Solberg's hopes of a podium finish alongside his brother were dashed after a recurrent engine problem saw him drop five minutes.

"It stopped several times. There was nothing I could do," said Solberg.

"At one point I pulled over and got out of the car to see if I could fix it. When I got back in I couldn't get the door closed. Everything is bad now. We'll have to hope it gets better in Turkey."

Rally of Greece final standings:
1. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 3hr 54min 54.700sec
2. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru at 1m 09.50sec
3. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) Ford 1:56.1
4. Urmo Aava (Estonia) Citroen 4:19.7
5. Daniel Sordo (Spain) Citroen 4:49.4
6. Matthew Wilson (Britain) Ford 6:11.3
7. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland) Ford 6:47.5
8. Henning Solberg (Norway) Ford 9:14.0
9. Toni Gardemeister (Finland) Suzuki 10:13.8
10. Conrad Rautenbach (Zimbabwe) Citroen 13:29.1

Stage winners: Latvala 5 (SS1, SS3, SS15, SS18, SS19), Loeb 4 (SS2, SS4, SS5, SS6), Galli 4 (SS9, SS10, SS16, SS17), Hirvonen 3 (SS8, SS11, SS13), Aava 2 (SS7, SS12), Atkinson 1 (SS14), Sordo 1 (SS20)

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version