Ogier leads Citroen sweep

France's Sebastien Ogier, driving a Citroen C4, achieved his first world rally championship win in the Rally of Portugal yesterday.

The 26-year-old finished ahead of C4 team-mates, series leader Sebastien Loeb, the reigning world champion, who was at 7.9 seconds off the pace, and Spaniard Dani Sordo at 1min 17.6 seconds.

"I'm incredibly happy, we had a perfect weekend, with a perfect car from start to finish," said Ogier.

"We attacked from the first to the last special without making a mistake even though we were under pressure from the best driver in the rally. It couldn't have been better."

Ogier, the junior world rally champion in 2008 in a Citroen C2, is competing in just his second full season on the senior circuit and had finished second in New Zealand three weeks ago, after a third in Mexico last March.

He had been leading after Friday morning's fourth special stage, and went into the final day with a 21.1sec advantage on seven-time world champion Loeb.

But Ogier had to fight off a stiff challenge from Loeb who was faster in the first four specials of the day with the 2007 and 2009 Portugal winner clawing back 14 seconds.

Finland's 2009 championship runner-up Mikko Hirvonen finished fourth in a Ford Focus after Norway's Petter Solberg crashed out in his Citroen C4 in the final stage just metres from the line.