Motorsport: Loeb cruises to Germany victory

FRANKFURT - World champion Sebastien Loeb grabbed his eighth victory of the season in the Rally of Germany today.

Frenchman Loeb, who was beaten by Marcus Gronholm in the Rally of Finland last time out, reasserted his authority on the first event back on asphalt since Monte Carlo in January.

The Citroen driver won five of six stages on the opening leg on Friday, five of seven on Saturday and took the first two on today's closing leg.

The 31-year-old eased off for the next three stages before returning to finish with victory over the final short St Wendel run.

He finished the race 37.4 seconds clear of Belgian teammate Francois Duval, who had pushed him hard for the first two days before settling for second place on team instructions.

Peugeot driver Gronholm, Loeb's closest rival in the world title race, was over two minutes behind the winner in third place.

Loeb's has 93 points from 11 races and has increased his lead over Gronholm to 32 points with five rounds to go.

Norway's Petter Solberg recovered from gearbox trouble on Saturday to finish seventh and keep hold of third place in the title race with 55 points.

Duval's second place was a triumph for a driver who was dropped by his team in May before winning a reprieve in Argentina last month.

"Francois had to think about the team result," said Loeb. "Without that, it would have been a very close battle.

"It was no surprise to me that he was fast. He was pushing me very close when he was at Ford last year."

Loeb maintained his dominance in the first two stages on day three, taking the first 16.37km St Wendeler Land run by 3sec from Duval.

Loeb grabbed the second stage by 1.7sec from Solberg before Peugeot's Markko Martin became the first non-Citroen driver to win a stage on the final run of the morning.

With Loeb concentrating on getting home, the next two stages went to Misubishi's Gigi Galli and Sollberg, before the race leader came back to win the final stage and make it 13 wins out of 19 over the weekend.

The next event is the British Rally in Wales from September 16-18.

- REUTERS