Champion Loeb heads Citroen 1-2-3-4 in Bulgaria

Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb, of France, led Citroen to an historic 1-2-3-4 in the inaugural Rally of Bulgaria yesterday.

Loeb, who had topped the leaderboard since Friday's opening session, beat his team-mates, Spanish runner-up Dani Sordo, Norway's Petter Solberg and fellow countryman Sebastien Ogier.

This was the first time time Citroen had filled the first four places in a rally and the first time a constructor had dominated to such an extent since the start of the world rally championship in 1997.

Six-time champion Loeb was registering his fourth win out of seven events this season and it extended his lead at the head of the 2010 drivers' standings.

Yesterday's final four stages were dominated by the fight for second between Solberg, at the wheel of a privately-entered Citroen, and Sordo.

Solberg was quickest in stages 11 and 13 but that was not enough to overturn the 4.7sec overnight deficit on Sordo who took stage 12 with Ogier annexing stage 14.

This was Loeb's 58th career win and he accomplished it with a 29.5-second cushion over Sordo with Solberg 36.3 adrift in third. Loeb opened up a 51-point lead over Ogier at the top of the drivers' championship.

"It's been perfect - a very good first day, then the second day had difficult conditions, it was important to just keep the rhythm and not make any mistakes, not take any risks," Loeb said.

Ogier, who will step up from the Citroen Junior Team to the factory squad for the next round of the series in Finland, was a solid fourth with the factory Ford Focus cars of Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala trailing in fifth and sixth places respectively, well over three minutes adrift of Loeb's total time.

The result will come as a major blow to the Blue Oval as their lack of pace on asphalt was exposed, and with three of the remaining six rounds of the series set to take place on the surface it is hard to see either of their Finnish drivers having much of a say in the title fight.