Just to compound Ford's misery, moments later word came through that
Francois Duval had also stopped on the stage. The Belgian had been lauded with praise throughout the weekend for his quiet and consistent run to fifth, but found a fine result going wanting as he joined Latvala – the driver he replaces in the factory team for the next two rounds – in propping up the retirement's list
Their despair, however, provided unbridled joy for
Citroen, who inherited an easy-looking 1-2 as a result. Probably one the most eventful days in Loeb's career, the Frenchman entered the penultimate stage down in fourth place after an earlier spin had seemingly deemed him out of the running for victory.
However, with a time some14.7secs quicker than anybody else through Whaanga (a mighty feat forgotten in the midst of Ford's implosion), Loeb leapt up into first place with just one stage remaining. Keeping his cool over the 3.14km Super Special Stage, Loeb wound up a 17.5secs winner from Sordo, who was thrilled with second place, not least because it goes a long way to push Citroen towards the team title this year.
A devastated Hirvonen clung onto third place to at least keep Loeb honest in the title fight, although he is now eight points behind with four rallies – two Tarmac, two gravel – remaining.
The demise of Latvala and Duval from the timesheets served to shake-up the order further back too, with
Petter Solberg ending the day three places higher than he had started it in fourth.
Marking a surprisingly good result for the
Subaru team after a troubled rally that had Solberg feeling frustrated with his Impreza for much of the weekend, while Subaru won't appreciate the three minute gap to the leaders, they won't dismiss five valuable points either.
After losing sixth to Solberg on the first stage after a spin,
Urmo Aava had looked likely to settle for seventh but was instead able to celebrate one of his best results in the WRC with fifth place. Classified as the best privateer entry too, the result will do Aava's hopes of a fuller campaign in 2009 no harm whatsoever.
