Loeb wins Rally Finland

Sébastien Loeb dominated the Finns at their own game to take his 73^rd career WRC win.

The French legend led form the front from Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon to dominate the Nordic drivers on the season’s biggest rally. So good was the championship leader, he even suggested he change his name to Loebenen, such was he in a league of his own. Loeb beat team-mate Mikko Hirvonen by 6.1 seconds and leaves the Land of a 1000 Lakes with a commanding 43-point advantage over Hirvonen.

The mega 33km Ouninpohja stage was the closing act of the weekend, but Loeb played it cool, while Hirvonen pushed hard but it was to no avail. Hirvonen set best time on it twice and set the new record for the stage with a time of 15:17.3s on the Power Stage to pick up the three bonus points ahead of Solberg and Loeb.

Ford was truly second best to the Citroens with Jari-Matti Latvala salvaging a podium result for the Malcolm Wilson run outfit. Petter Solberg takes fourth ahead of Mads Ostberg. More Fiestas were found in the top ten with Ott Tanak sixth, followed by local drivers Matti Rantanen and Jari Ketomaa. Martin Prokop finished ninth ahead of Sébastien Ogier in the Skoda Fabia S2000.

TOP TEN SS 18
1 Hirvonen
2 Solberg + 0.6s
3 Loeb +1.1s
4 Latvala +7.1s
5 Ostberg + 15.3s
6 Tanak + 18.6s
7 Rantanen + 22.8s
8 Neuville + 25.5s
9 Atkinson +29.5s
10 Prokop + 32.4s

TOP TEN FINAL
1 Loeb
2 Hirvonen +6.1s
3 Latvala +35.0s
4 Solberg +56.1s
5 Ostberg +2:32.1s
6 Tanak + 2:47.6s
7 Rantanen +4:51.7s
8 Ketomaa + 6:01.9s
9 Prokop + 6:04.3s
10 Ogier + 8:46.0s

DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP
1Sébastien Loeb 171 points
2 Mikko Hirvonen 128
3 Petter Solberg 105
4 Mads Ostberg 90
5 Jari-Matti Latvala 69
6 Evgeny Novikov 55
7 Martin Prokop 38
8 Thierry Neuville 32
9 Dani Sordo 29
10 Tanak 26