Lloret De Mar, Oct 27: Luckily for Loeb his fellow Citroen driver Carlos Sainz, who had come to Catalunya with a three-point lead in the drivers' standings, fared even worse on the final stage.
The Spaniard, bidding for a third world title 11 years after his last, dropped from fourth to seventh after spinning out late in the stage.
The results left Loeb and Sainz level on 63 points at the top of the world championship table, with the Frenchman ahead by virtue of his three race victories this season to one for Sainz. Norwegian Petter Solberg, who improved from 10th to fifth in his Subaru on the final day, is a point behind in third, while Briton Richard Burns is now fourth, five points behind Loeb and Sainz after abandoning on the 19th stage in Catalunya. An impossibly close title race will be decided between those four drivers at the British Rally from November 6 to 9.



Solberg, who struggled for two days on the dry tarmac, suddenly found the form that took him to victory in Corsica last week, and he won the opening stage ahead of his Subaru team mate Tommi Makinen. He then claimed third spot in the short second stage and finished second behind Makinen in the third stage.


Leading finishing times after the final day of the Rally of Catalunya: 1. Gilles Panizzi (France) Peugeot three hours 55 minutes and 09.4 seconds 2. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen 13 seconds behind 3. Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford 13.6 4. Francois Duval (Belgium) Ford 55.4 5. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 1:10.8 6. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot 1:29.1 7. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen 1:33.0 8. Tommi Makinen (Finland) Subaru 1:55.1 9. Colin McRae (Britain) Citroen 3:15.2 10. Philippe Bugalski (France) Citroen 5:13.6


World championship standings: 1. Loeb 63 points 2. Sainz 63 3. Solberg 62 4. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot 58 5. Martin 49 6. Gronholm 46 7. McRae 40 8. Panizzi 27 9. Duval 26 10. Makinen 24


Bureau Report