After dominating the action during Day 2 of the event – when he won 8 of the 9 special stages at play – Loeb built a remarkable 55-second lead on top of the classification, which was more than enough for him to cruise through the Sunday stages with ease. The Frenchman eventually finished more than 24 seconds ahead of Petter Solberg at the finish line, while Citroen completed the podium with Junior Team's Sebastien Ogier.
“I had a good lead today and was not going to take any risks with that when I started first on the road. I was just breezing through the last couple of stages trying to keep my concentration. It's a good victory; I'm back in the lead of the championship and the points we lost in Sweden we've won back - that's important,” said Loeb after clinching his 55th win in the WRC.
Norwegian Petter Solberg managed to survive a late surge from Ogier for the runner-up spot and, after a disappointing start in Sweden, managed to cross the finish line just 1.1 seconds ahead of the Frenchman.
“I'm delighted but absolutely exhausted. After what we've been through last year and this year it’s a hell of result. We analyzed the time we might lose running first on the road and even though we knew it would be difficult it worked out perfectly. It’s a great feeling to be back on the podium!” added Solberg, who scored his best WRC result in the last 2 years.
Ogier finished third overall, and a lot had to do with his tactical move on Saturday, when he let Solberg take the runner-up spot for the Sunday action for a cleaner road in the last 3 special stages of the event. In the end, that wasn't enough to secure him the 2nd place overall.
“My team told me not to push too hard today, so this morning I didn't push to the maximum. Maybe it's there that I lost out, or maybe yesterday when I slowed at the end of the stage. I think maybe we could have been faster than Petter if we wanted this weekend, but here we are third and it's a good result,” said Ogier.
Fourth and fifth overall were the two drivers from Ford, Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala, who switched positions – due to team orders – in order for the former to grab some more points in the overall classification.
“It was a very difficult weekend for the whole team,” admitted Hirvonen, who is now trailing Loeb by 6 points for the lead in the drivers' standings.
Stobart's Henning Solberg finished the rally in 6th place, followed by Federico Villagra, Xavier Pons, Martin Prokop and Armindo Araujo.
In the drivers' standings, Loeb leads from Hirvonen by 6 points, while Latvala sits in 3rd place, some 12 more points behind.
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