Citroen Total team driver Sebastien Loeb has won the Vodafone Rally Portugal and extended his unbroken run of victories to all four of the WRC rounds run so far this year.
The win was the 51st in Loeb’s record breaking WRC career, and puts him in a commanding lead of this year’s drivers’ championship, with a perfect maximum score of 40 points.
In front of tens of thousands of cheering fans, the Frenchman had a clean run through the rally closing Algarve Stadium Super Special, to secure victory over Finn Mikko Hirvonen of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team by 24.3 seconds.
“It’s incredible - apart from our mistake on Friday’s first stage it’s been almost a perfect rally!” said Loeb. “After that I was really motivated to do well, so we pushed on the limit all the time. Saturday and Sunday were much better days, we had no problems at all and the car was perfect. I’m very, very happy. Now anything is possible!”
Finishing as runner up to Loeb for the third time this season, Hirvonen netted another eight drivers’ championship points and remained Sebastien’s closest rival on a total of 30.
“I started the day thinking a win was possible but the dust hung in the air and I realised after the opening stage that in those conditions I had no chance of catching Sebastien,” he said. “I hoped to win here but it wasn't meant to be. I think second place was the maximum I could achieve. Eight points is good for me because many drivers scored zero.”
Third place went to Loeb’s Spanish team-mate, Dani Sordo, who played the perfect back-up role, taking his second podium this season in his C4. “I’m really happy with the way this weekend has gone,” said Sordo. “My feeling with the car and pace notes was good. We make a couple of small mistakes but I’m feeling confident ahead of the next round in Argentina.”
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