Motorsport: Francois Duval wins Rally of Australia

Belgium's Francois Duval captured his first world championship event with victory in the season-ending Rally of Australia yesterday.

Duval, driving a Citroen, finished the three-day rally in a combined time of three hours 19 minutes 55 seconds, almost 53 seconds ahead of his closest rival.

The Belgian, who is still looking for a drive next season after Citroen's decision to take a year off, took the lead midway through the second day and won four of the 26 stages in and around the Western Australia city of Perth.

"It was quite difficult for me because there was quite a big fight behind and I had to go quickly to stop them catching me, although I could not go off the road," Duval said.

"It's impossible to say what will happen in the future but I hope it will be easier for me to win more rallies now that I've won my first one."

Finland's Harri Rovanpera drove his Mitsubishi into second place to reach the podium for the first time this season while Austria's Manfred Stohl took third in a Citroen.

"It has been a great rally for us," Rovanpera said.

"The car has worked well, the performance and speed has been good and the feeling has been right all weekend."

Scotland's former world champion Colin McRae had started the final day in second place but was forced to retire because of a clutch problem.

"I'm very disappointed, more for the team than myself," McRae said.

"It was a very good fight and we would have been either second or third. I think we've proved a point, but the ideal thing would have been to have had the result in the bag as well."

McRae was the last in a series of high-profile casualties during the season-ending rally.

French world champion Sebastien Loeb crashed out when his Citroen hit a tree while leading late on the first day on Saturday, and Sweden's Daniel Carlsson had a lucky escape when his Peugeot burst into flames after it slid off the road and slammed into a tree.

Former world champion Marcus Gronholm also made an early exit on the opening day, ruining his chances of finishing second in the championship.

The Finn damaged the suspension on his Peugeot when he hit a rock and, although he continued driving, local police ordered him to stop on safety grounds.

Petter Solberg, who finished the championship second on a countback from Gronholm, had led the rally after the first day but retired on day two after killing a kangaroo in a high-speed accident.

The Norwegian, driving full speed at the time, managed to complete the stage but the impact damaged the cooling system, radiator, fan and oil cooler on his Subaru, forcing him to quit.

- REUTERS