Trier, July 28: Frenchman Sebastien Loeb resisted a late challenge from world champion Marcus Gronholm to win the Rally of Germany for the second consecutive time on Sunday. Citroen driver Loeb, who won the rally in its world championship debut last year, finished 3.6 seconds ahead of Finn Gronholm's Peugeot on Sunday (July 27). Gronholm had started a final day featuring six timed stages and again marred by rain 5.5 seconds behind Loeb. Briton Richard Burns, Gronholm's Peugeot team mate, took third place 19.7 seconds back to retain the overall lead in the world championship standings. The Frenchman, who comes from the Alsace region near the German border, started the final timed stage with a 13-second lead on Gronholm. Loeb, who had demonstrated his skills on difficult terrain by winning the Monte Carlo Rally in January, mastered constantly changing surfaces and levels of grip to record his second victory of the year.


The rally, around Trier, in western Germany, marked the start of the second half of the season, with the focus switching from gravel to asphalt and from reliability to outright speed.


Burns, still chasing his first win of the year, now leads the standings on 43 points with Citroen driver Carlos Sainz of Spain, who came sixth in Germany, second four points back.



Gronholm was third a further point adrift with Loeb fourth, 10 points off the lead. The title race remains wide open with six rallies remaining. The next round is in Finland from August 7-10.


Leading final positions in the three-day Rally of Germany after the last day on Sunday: 1. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen three hours 46 minutes 50.4 seconds 2. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot 3.6 seconds behind 3. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot 19.7 4. Colin McRae (Britain) Citroen 31.4 5. Markko Martin (Estonia) Ford 57.9 6. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Citroen 1:38.6 7. Francois Duval (Belgium) Ford 1:48.1 8. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru 2:30.2 9. Cedric Robert (France) Peugeot 3:12.8 10. Gilles Panizzi (France) Peugeot 3:39.6


World drivers championship standings: 1. Burns 43 points 2. Sainz 39 3. Gronholm 38 4. Loeb 33 5. Solberg 30 6. McRae 28 7. Martin 27 8. Harri Rovanpera (Finland) 19 9. Tommi Makinen (Finland) 15 10. Duval 11


Bureau Report