World champion Sebastien Loeb, in a Citroen C4, won the Rally of Argentina on Sunday for his fifth win in five races this season and the 52nd of his career.
The final day’s action proved disastrous for Solberg’s brother Petter, the 2003 world champion, whose privately-entered Citron Xsara suffered mechanical failure when he was running in a comfortable third place.
Loeb clocked the best time on Sunday’s opening two stages before easing up to avoid problems which allowed Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala, who had lost eight minutes due to electrical problems, to register the fastest times on the next two.
Loeb then hammered home his superiority by topping the time charts in the 23rd, and final, stage of the race inside the Estadio Cordoba. AFP
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Loeb finished the three-day race through the Sierra de Cordoba one minute 13.1 seconds ahead of Spaniard Dani Sordo, his Citroen team mate.
Henning Solberg of Norway was third, more than four minutes behind Loeb.
“It really couldn’t have gone much better for us,” said Loeb.
“It’s been a great rally. The stages are exciting to drive and we enjoyed a good fight with Mikko until Saturday afternoon. Okay, after he retired it got a bit less exciting but I still enjoyed my driving here.” guardian.co.uk
Argentinian Villagra, a crowd favourite, recorded his best finish and said afterwards: “We are very happy.
“It’s been a difficult and interesting rally, and we had a great fight with Matthew. It’s better than winning the national championship - to get a good result in front of your home crowd is very good.”
Sebastien Ogier was seventh in his Citroen and Subaru’s Nasser Al-Attiyah was eighth, while Mitsubishi duo Juan Marchetto and Marcos Ligato completed the top 10. The Press Association
