Loeb wins Portugal Rally

Citroen's Sebastien Loeb won the Portuguese Rally yesterday to turn the heat on Ford's championship leader Marcus Gronholm. The French triple world champion beat his Finnish rival by 37.1 seconds after the 2.2km finale in Faro's Algarve soccer stadium.

The victory was Loeb's third in five starts this season, and second in a row, leaving him just two points adrift of Gronholm in the overall standings.

Gronholm had clawed back 7.6 seconds on stage 16 and a further 7.5 on stage 17 but knew since Saturday that, barring an unlikely last day mishap for Loeb, he had no chance of overhauling the Citroen driver.

Loeb, 40.5 seconds clear at the start of the day, was fastest in stage 15 and the final showcase sprint after winning all of Saturday's stages on the hard gravel roads of southern Portugal.

Gronholm's team-mate Mikko Hirvonen was third, 1:31.0 behind but maintaining Ford's lead in the manufacturers' standings. Norway's Petter Solberg was a further 1:05.8 behind in a Subaru with Citroen's Spaniard Dani Sordo in fifth place.

Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala was sixth for the Stobart M-Sport Ford team with Sweden's Daniel Carlsson seventh in a Kronos Citroen and Italian Gigi Galli eighth in another non-works Citroen.