KEY POINTS:
AJACCIO - Frenchman Sebastien Loeb revived his hopes of clinching a fourth world rally title when he won the Tour of Corsica for the third time in succession.
The Citroen driver cut his deficit to Ford's world
championship leader Marcus Gronholm of Finland, who finished
second, to four points with three races remaining.
Gronholm now has 104 points and Loeb 100 ahead of the rally
of Japan on gravel from Oct 26 to 28.
Loeb took command of the race, also known as the French
rally, midway through the first leg and never looked back
despite Gronholm's pressure.
The Ford driver took the early lead but soon had to
acknowledge Loeb's superiority on the asphalt.
"I had no chance today, so it's good to be second. It looks
okay for the rest of the season," Gronholm told official wrc.com
radio after finishing 23.7 seconds behind Loeb.
"We get two points back from Marcus. We could not do better
than victory and unfortunately no one managed to finish between
us," said Loeb.
"Obviously we are in a better position than two races ago,
when we were 10 points behind."
Loeb's Spanish team mate Dani Sordo took third place, 44.3
seconds off the pace.
Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala was a surprising fourth with a
Ford after holding off Norwegian Petter Solberg's late challenge
for Subaru.
- REUTERS
