The Frenchman was delighted to come out top and equal Makinen's record of four crowns in succession: “This was definitely my hardest battle for a World title,” said Seb, who celebrated at the finish by climbing onto the roof of his C4 WRC.
“When I started 10 years ago I had nothing and now I have four World titles. It's a very good feeling to win this year as I've had a very hard battle with Marcus all season. To win by four points is a really good moment for me.”
Petter Solberg was next up in fourth for
Subaru, albeit more than 1.5 minutes further back. The Norwegian had been hoping for better than P4, but just didn't have the pace to challenge for a spot on the rostrum.
Citroen #2 driver,
Daniel Sordo came in fifth, posting eleven top-five times in total, his best in the final stage when he was third fastest.
Further down the order, Britain's
Matthew Wilson was sixth to take points for the third event in succession. The Englishman went into the final day 10 seconds behind
Chris Atkinson but got the better of the Subaru man on the very first test and then finished nearly a minute in front.
Atkinson struggled with handling problems on day 3 and while he was unable to keep up with Wilson, was far enough ahead of OMV Kronos
Citroen's Manfred Stohl, to take seventh.
Subaru's third driver, Xavier Pons was ninth after a ‘difficult' weekend and the Spaniard was disappointed not to have finished higher.
Jari-Matti Latvala rounded out the top ten and while he showed great pace, winning ten of the events 17 stages, the problems in the final stage on Friday, meant he lost too much time to add to his personal points tally for the year.
Of the rest, Mads Ostberg came in eleventh in his privately entered Impreza, followed by Skoda privateer, Jan Kopecky, Guy Wilks and
Henning Solberg, who like his team-mate, Latvala, had problems in the final stage on day 1.
