France's Loeb wins Germany title

TRIER, Germany (AFP) –

Sebastien Loeb of France races past vineyards in Kluesserath near Trier, southwestern Germany, on August 24. Loeb won the Rally of Germany on Sunday to claim his ninth win there in a decade with Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala second and Mikko Hirvonen finishing third.

France’s Sebastien Loeb won the Rally of Germany on Sunday to claim his ninth win here in a decade with Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala second and Mikko Hirvonen finishing third.

Loeb finished 2mins 00.1sec clear of Latvala, with Hirvonen at 2mins 31.4secs, to claim the 74th win of his career and strengthen his lead at the top of the World Rally Championship drivers’ table.

Having led from the first timed practice on Thursday, Loeb proved again he is at home on the twisting roads around Trier in the Moselle valley having first won the Germany rally in 2002.

The 38-year-old Citroen driver opened a 20 second lead on Friday and extended the gap on Saturday as his Ford rival Petter Solberg damaged his car’s rear-right suspension hitting a rock after an error.

Loeb went into the final day with a lead of 1min 42sec and won the ninth rally in the WRC schedule by taking nine of the 15 stages including the final one Sunday on the streets of Trier.

“The Rallye Deutschland is a race where it is easy to make mistakes,” said Loeb.

“A lot of drivers have made them. This is a tricky rally with narrow roads.

“We managed to not make a mistake from the beginning and I drove very clean.

“The result is there to see.”

The next event on the WRC calender is the Wales Rally Great Britain starting on September 13 in Cardiff, the 10th of 13 in a season which culminates in Spain’s Rally de Espana on November 11.