'WE REALLY ENJOYED OURSELVES THIS WEEK'

April 6, 2009

Reigning five-times World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb of France made it four wins in a row on Sunday when he won the Rally of Portugal - five if you include the last rally of 2008.

Loeb, driving a Citroen C4, finished ahead of Finland's Mikko Hirvonen in a Ford Focus and Spaniard Dani Sordo third in his Citroen.

It was Loeb's second win in Portugal - the other was in 2007 - and his fifth consecutive race victory after triumphing in Great Britain at the end of 2008 and then winning in Ireland, Norway and Cyprus at the start of 2009.

Loeb said after equalling fellow-countryman Alain Prost's 51 victories in Formula 1: "We really enjoyed ourselves this week on stages that were technical and difficult in front of a good crowd."

His comments drew applause from the 15 000 crowd in the Estadio Algarve there to watch the five-times champion in bright sunshine.

By the start of the race's 18th and final stage, a two-kilometre tarmac track in a stadium constructed for the Euro 2004 football tournament, Loeb had a 24sec lead over Hirvonen - though the latter recorded the quickest times on stages 16 and 17.

Loeb began the day by winning stages 14 and 15, having won the last seven on Saturday, to ensure his victory.

Norway's Petter Solberg won the race's last stage in a Citroen Xsara to secure fourth place. - AFP

Rally of Portugal results
1 Sebastien Loeb (FRA/Citroen C4) 3hr 53min 13.1
2 Mikko Hirvonen (FIN/Ford Focus) +24.3
3 Dani Sordo (ESP/Citroen C4) +1min45.4
4 Petter Solberg (NOR/Citroen Xsara +2min44.6
5 Henning Solberg (NOR/Ford Focus) +5min46.3
6 Mads Ostberg (NOR/Subaru Impreza) +6min20.8
7 Federico Villagra (ARG/Ford Focus) +12min59.5
8 Khalid Al Qassimi (UAE/Ford Focus) +18min21.7
9 Armindo Araujo (POR/Mitsubishi Lancer) +22min18.5

Retirements
Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN/Ford Focus) SS4
Marcus Gronholm (FIN/Subaru Impreza) SS8, Evgeny Novikov (RUS/Citroën C4 SS15, Matthew Wilson (GBR/Ford Focus SS17, Conrad Rautenbach (ZIM/Citroën C4 SS17.

Stage winners
Loeb 10 (4,7-15), Hirvonen 3 (5,16,17), Latvala 2 (SS2, SS3), H. Solberg 2 (SS1, SS18), Sordo 1 (SS6)