WRC: Five star effort from Loeb

Sebastien Loeb has now won all five rounds of the 2009 World Rally Championship after winning Sunday's Rally Argentina.

The Frenchman dominated the second day to take a 20-point lead in the standings, although he was fortunate that main rival Mikko Hirvonen retired with an engine problem in the afternoon.

Loeb was quickest in the superspecial on Thursday night but in the first proper stage he lost the lead to Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala.

At the end of leg one Loeb was third, 16 seconds behind the leader and his number two Dani Sordo, but he was unstoppable over the weekend, leaving Sordo to settle for second overall, one minute 13.1 seconds behind.

Loeb told www.autosport.com: "We had a good fight with Mikko until Saturday midday but then he had to retire and it was a bit less exciting. But I enjoyed this rally a lot."

Sordo added: "It's a very good result and for the team and Sebastien's championship. I'm really happy with this weekend."

Latvala was on course for third but an electrical problem pegged him back eight minutes this morning and he ended up sixth, behind Henning Solberg in third, fourth-placed Federico Villagra and Matthew Wilson in fifth.

Argentinian Villagra, a crowd favourite, recorded his best finish and said afterwards: "We are very happy.

"It's been a difficult and interesting rally, and we had a great fight with Matthew. It's better than winning the national championship - to get a good result in front of your home crowd is very good."

Sebastien Ogier was seventh in his Citroen and Subaru's Nasser Al-Attiyah was eighth, while Mitsubishi duo Juan Marchetto and Marcos Ligato completed the top 10.

Loeb told www.wrc.com: "I pushed hard from the start to the end, I was on the limit everywhere, and now we have lead of almost a minute, so it's been a great day.

"It was really a good fight with Mikko, so I was disappointed when he went out because now the race is not the same.

"Also, when it comes to the championship, if we can finish like this then there will be a big gap - so that's not so nice.

"The most important thing for me is to keep the car on the road. We have a big lead over Dani so we don't have to take big risks."


ESS