Last updated at 12:09, Monday, 08 December 2008

World champion Sebastien Loeb rounded off his World Rally season in fine style by claiming his maiden Wales Rally GB victory on a dramatic final day.

The Frenchman had entered the last leg trailing Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala by 7.3 seconds but soon began trimming that lead as he set fastest times on the first two of Sunday’s four stages, moving to within 1.4 seconds of the Finn, who was struggling to run first on the slippery stages.

The Citroen driver then set the fastest time on the day’s third test, a second run through the Rheola forestry, which looked likely to give him a handy lead, only for officials to hit the five-time champion with a 10-second penalty for jumping the start. The penalty was later rescinded after organisers studied video footage of the incident, but at the time it allowed Latvala to extend his advantage to 2.2 seconds as the leaders prepared for the final run through Port Talbot.

But Loeb was not to be denied and his time through the 20.1-kilometre stage saw him emerge the victor by just 2.7 seconds, a margin later corrected to 12.7 seconds after the removal of the penalty.

Loeb’s 11th win of the season, a new record, and a podium for Dani Sordo, who was over a minute behind the leading pair, also ensured that Citroen took the manufacturers’ championship title ahead of Ford.

Loeb was ecstatic to have claimed victory, even though he felt the officials had been wrong to hand him his earlier penalty.

Belgian Francois Duval was sixth for the Stobart Ford team after Henning Solberg’s privateer Ford Focus suffered broken left rear suspension on the penultimate stage to drop him out of the reckoning.

Cumbria’s Matthew Wilson finished just outside the points in ninth with Aberdeen’s Barry Clark a fine 10th.

Six-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi finished an impressive 12th.

First published at 11:27, Monday, 08 December 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk