Karlstad, Feb 09: The win put Loeb on 20 points in the championship standings, 7 ahead of Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm who moved into second place after finishing as the runner-up on Sunday. Loeb, 29, held the lead for the whole of the final day and finished with a 46.4-second advantage over Finn Gronholm with Norwegian world champion Petter Solberg third 1:21.5 adrift for Subaru. With a lead of more than 40 seconds coming into the final leg, Loeb played it safe on Sunday and did not win any of the stages.
Gronholm never really threatened Loeb, failing to close the gap despite winning the 10.77-km Hara 1 stage as well as the Rammen 2 and final Hara 2 runs. A spin early on in the day's first stage, when he finished 17th, did not help the twice world champions' cause.

Bureau Report