After asking you to vote for your leading drivers from the World Rally Championship season, the time has come to reveal who you voted as the top two.

After asking you to give each driver a mark out of ten for their performances during the season, an average score was calculated to decide the winner.


WRC Driver of the Year - Second place:

Name: Mikko Hirvonen
Team: BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
Car: Ford Focus RS WRC
Events 15
Wins: 3
Podiums (excluding wins): 8
Stage wins: 46
Championship points: 103 points
Championship position: 2nd

Results: 2nd on the Monte, 2nd in Sweden, 4th in Mexico, 5th in Argentina (under SupeRally), 1st in Jordan, 2nd in Sardinia, 3rd in Greece, 1st in Turkey, 2nd in Finland, 4th in Germany, 3rd in NZ, 3rd in Spain, 2nd in France, 1st in Japan, 8th in Wales.

Mikko Hirvonen became Ford's number one driver in 2008 following Marcus Gronholm's decision to retire and the Finn didn't let the 'Blue Oval' down.

Indeed, he kept the fight for the 2008 drivers' crown alive until the penultimate event in Japan, where he took his third win of the year to add to his earlier triumphs in Jordan and Turkey.

In the end, he finished in the points in every single event, something never before done in the history of the WRC.


WRC Driver of the Year - Winner:

Name: Sebastien Loeb
Team: Citroen Total World Rally Team
Car: Citroen C4 WRC
Events 15
Wins: 11
Podiums (excluding wins): 2
Stage wins: 106
Championship points: 122 points
Championship position: 1st

Results: 1st on the Monte, retired in Sweden (off), 1st in Mexico, 1st in Argentina, 10th in Jordan (under SupeRally - after road section accident), 1st in Sardinia, 1st in Greece, 3rd in Turkey, 1st in Finland, 1st in Germany, 1st in NZ, 1st in Spain, 1st in France, 3rd in Japan, 1st in GB.

Sebastien Loeb took the drivers' title again in 2008 and, in doing so, became the only driver in the 30-odd year history of the sport to have won the WRC crown five times - one more than Tommi Makinen and Juha Kankkunen, who both took it on four occasions.

Loeb won eleven of the 15 events in total, including the Rally Finland - something only three other non-Nordic drivers, namely Markko Martin (2003), Didier Auriol (1992) and Carlos Sainz (1990), have managed to do. He also finally won the Wales Rally GB - one of the few things that was missing from his CV.

Loeb is quite simply in a class of his own and its no surprise to see him voted Crash.net's WRC driver of the year.