Rally of Great Britain : 40th WRC win for Loeb and Elena.

40th WRC win for Loeb and Elena.

Per-Gunnar Andersson give Suzuki an encouraging ninth place in Italy

18 May 2008, 8:43 pm

Defending World Rally Champions Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena (Citroen C4) bounced back into contention for their fifth consecutive titles with a hard-earned win in Italy. This was their 40th WRC victory.

The Frenchman lead from start to finish but came under relentless pressure from Ford's "Flying Finns" Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala. Loeb's task was made all the more difficult by running first through the mostly dry stages, with their fine top-coating of gravel.

Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen in their BP Ford Focus finished second to retain their lead in the WRC after six of the 15 rounds.

Hirvonen closed to within 10.6 seconds of Loeb on Sunday's final day after impressive times on Stages 13 and 16.

Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila in their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car recorded fastest times on 10 of the 17 Special Stages, aiding their recovery from seventh place on Friday to third overall, 4.7 seconds behind their team mates.

This result helped BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team retain their lead in the Manufacturers Championship.

Gigi Galli, on his "home" rally, was fourth. His Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team-mate, Mathew Wilson climbed back from 15th to 12th after brake problems on Friday.

Dani Sordo (Citroen C4) was equally hampered by the road conditions: "Even keeping to the lines left by Seb, I couldn't find any grip." The young Spaniard finished fifth.

Australian Chris Atkinson (Subaru Impreza) was unable to explain why he was "giving a second a kilometre" to his rivals but persevered to finish sixth. His team-mates, Norway's Petter Solberg and his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills were third overall on Friday but were forced to change a punctured tyre in Stage 8 on Saturday, eventually fighting back from 14th to 10th.

Per-Gunnar Andersson provided an encouraging result for Suzuki with ninth place, behind Henning Solberg (Ford) in seventh and Urmo Aava (Citroen C4) in eighth.

Ireland's Shaun Gallagher finished 21st. Read his "Blog" on http://www.wrc.com/

For comprehensive results and news from Rally of Italy please go to; http://www.rallyitaliasardegna.com/2008/gb/index_gb.htm

And for an overview of the FIA World Rally Championship including video clips, Blogs and championship points after round six of 15 please go to;http://www.wrc.com

The next and seventh round of the WRC is BP Ultimate Acropolis Rally of Greece.29/5 to 1/6. http://www.acropolisrally.gr/en

Sebastien Loeb has won Rallye Monte-Carlo for a sixth time following a dominant performance behind the wheel of the Citroen DS3 WRC he shares with Monegasque co-driver Daniel Elena.

Of the 74 starters who began Wales Rally GB in Llandudno on Thursday 10th November, 40 were classified at the end of the four-day,1860 kms rally which featured 23 timed special stages as it wound its way from the North coast to the ceremonial finish in Cardiff.

As this year's Wales Rally GB - the final and deciding round of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship - draws to a close, Business Minister, Edwina Hart has announced a funding package of £1.4 million for the 2012 event.