Citroen's Sebastien Loeb has admitted that he might fall victim again to tactics in two weeks time in New Zealand after he re-took the lead in the drivers' championship in Germany.

Loeb blitzed his rivals on the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, leading throughout and winning 14 of the 19 stages en-route to his seventh win on the trot on the Trier-based event.

That result puts him back in front of Mikko Hirvonen in the standings, 4 points ahead, but with the series now returning to gravel, the Frenchman is well aware that he will have to play the 'road sweeper' in Hamilton and that could leave him in the same position as he found himself in Turkey back in June.

There the Ford's slowed at the end of day 1 in order to get a better road position for the second leg and that left the four-time world champion at a disadvantage.

"This is the best position for the rest of the season [to be top and for Citroen to lead the manufacturers']. New Zealand though will be difficult as there is always a lot of gravel on the road there. We saw what happened in Turkey and that could happen in New Zealand as well," he noted.

"But I am happy to be in the lead of the Championship, we are four points clear so that is good."

For now though, Loeb is just enjoying his Germany triumph - and he had no complaints about his C4 WRC or Pirelli's asphalt rubber.

"After beating our main rival on his home event, we had no intention of letting anybody else take victory in Germany," Seb added.

"Our C4 WRC handled perfectly impeccably from start to finish and we got our tyre calls right every time, switching from the Pirelli 'Soft' and 'Hard' options as a function of the conditions.

"I had an excellent feeling with my car over all the different types of terrain we encountered here and that meant we were able to push hard from the word go and then consolidate our position.