Whaddaya know - Loeb champion!

[ales]

After finishing second at the weekend's Corsica rally Seb Loeb clinched the championship with 2 events to go. The rally, however, belonged to the Ford team: Duval and Martin shared all but two stage wins, and while Duval had to retire with engine troubles, Markko finished 2 full minutes in front of Loeb, making it the first win on tarmac for Martin and also for Focus WRC03. But with the battle going to Ford, the war went to Citroen - after Duval's retirement Ford lost any chance to catch the French team in the manufacturers' standings.

Top 8 from the Rally of France:
1. Markko MÄRTIN (EE)
Ford FOCUS RS WRC04 4:11:51.4 0.0

2. Sébastien LOEB (F)
Citroen XSARA WRC 4:13:53.4 +2:02.0

3. Carlos SAINZ (E)
Citroen XSARA WRC 4:14:46.7 +2:55.3

4. Marcus GRÖNHOLM (FIN)
Peugeot 307 WRC 4:15:20.5 +3:29.1

5. Petter SOLBERG (N)
Subaru IMPREZA WRC.. 4:16:57.7 +5:06.3

6. Stéphane SARRAZIN (F)
Subaru IMPREZA FIRST03 4:19:00.5 +7:09.1

7. Freddy LOIX (B)
Peugeot 307 WRC 4:20:12.6 +8:21.2

8. Armin SCHWARZ (D)
Skoda FABIA WRC 4:20:59.7 +9:08.3

[RallyRaider]

Well deserved result for Loeb and Citroen. Was a great shame that Duval couldn't continue his great start and win his first rally. Hopefully the win will put M-Sport back in the good books and Ford will get seriously back into rallying next year.