Sebastien Loeb has won the World Rally Championship for a record-extending sixth time after claiming victory on Rally GB.

The Citroen driver had arrived at the season finale one point behind Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and facing his toughest title battle in many years, but led the rally throughout. Hirvonen admitted he had been too cautious on Friday's opening loop, but fought back and cut Loeb's lead from 9s to 2.4s by SS7.

But then Loeb secured the championship with an incredible performance on the next two stages, where he extended his lead to a comfortable 25s. Hirvonen started closing in again on Sunday morning until his bonnet came loose and obscured his view on the penultimate stage, forcing him to stop and remove it, and leaving Loeb free to cruise to victory and the world championship.

"It has been an incredible season, a very good start then we lost everything in the middle of the season," said Loeb. "It was big, big pressure and I'm really happy about this one because Mikko was really strong. It was an incredible battle all season," he added.

Hirvonen was downcast, saying: "I need to get back to work and find more speed for next year. We are now really close to Sebastien and that feels good, but it's still a big disappointment in the end."

The Finn's late drama almost allowed Dani Sordo to complete a Citroen one-two, as the Spaniard closed to within 0.9s of the Ford. But Hirvonen was 0.1s quicker on SS14, leaving Sordo to settle for third.

Results:

1. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) 3h16m25.4s
2. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) +1m06.1s
3. Dani Sordo (Citroen) +1m07.1s
4. Petter Solberg (Citroen) +1m28.1s
5. Henning Solberg (Ford) +6m28.0s
6. Matthew Wilson (Ford) +7m46.0s
7. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) +12m11.9s
8. Conrad Rautenbach (Citroen) +14m27.8s
9. Eyvind Brynildsen (Skoda) +22m22.7s
10. Armindo Araujo (Mitsubishi) +24m18.8s

26/10/2009