Latvala escapes carnage to win

Finn Jari-Matti Latvala survived unscathed on an incident-packed final day to snatch the Rally New Zealand title yesterday as his closest rivals came to grief.

The Ford driver, who had hovered around second place through most of the three days, was gifted victory when Frenchman Sebastien Ogier crashed just short of the finish line on the final stage.

Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb saw his hopes evaporate when he ploughed into a tree while leading with less than three stages remaining, and first-day leader Petter Solberg crashed while third on the final stage and did not finish.

Ogier, holding a 6.2-second lead over Latvala going into the final stage, spun into a ditch just three corners from the finish and ended up 2.4secs down in second place.

"We were a little bit lucky but it feels really good," said Latvala, who recorded his third win in the world championship.

"I really went fast and towards the end I was almost off the road myself."

Six-time world champion Loeb, Ogier's Citroen C4 team-mate, was third at 15.2sec down, with Finn Mikko Hirvonen in the second Ford fourth, 21.3sec behind Latvala.

Loeb had appeared on course to complete a spectacular comeback after crashing into a bridge on Friday, which put him 1min 40secs off the lead.

With a devastating spell of driving on the gravel roads on Saturday he had closed to 5.3secs behind Ogier going into the final day where he took the lead on the first of the four stages yesterday.

But his dramatic charge up the leaderboard ended with another mistake on the next stage which left him with an insurmountable 21.7secs to make up on the two remaining stages.

Loeb remains at the top of the world championship table with 108 points, 36 clear of Latvala, who improved to second on 72 with Hirvonen third on 64, one point ahead of Ogier.