Loeb wins Rally New Zealand, extends WRC lead

HAMILTON, New Zealand (AP) - World champion Sebastien Loeb took advantage of Mikko Hirvonen's spin on the second-to-last stage to win Rally New Zealand by 17.5 seconds Sunday, doubling his lead over the Finn in the World Rally Championship.
The win was Loeb's 42nd in WRC rallies, his third in succession after victories in Finland
and Germany and his second in New Zealand, where he was last successful in 2005.
He came into the rally with a four point lead over Hirvonen in the drivers' standings and has now moved eight points clear, with 86 points to Hirvonen's 78. His one-two finish with teammate Dani Sordo of Spain also tightened Citroen's grip on the manufacturers' championship.
Loeb's winning chances looked at an end when he spun on the opening stage of the day, as he entered the penultimate state 15.3 seconds off the lead, trailing Ford's Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala and Sordo.
The Frenchman was faced with having to make up half-a-second per kilometer, but circumstances soon turned in his favor around the dense coastal bush of the Whaanga Coast stage.
Latvala was first on the road and worked to sweep the road's thick gravel coating to improve traction for Hirvonen whose Ford Focus immediately followed his own. But he spun twice early in the stage, damaging his car too badly to continue. Then Hirvonen also spun and was forced to nurse his damaged car to the finish.
Loeb had some anxious moments on the slick corners of the stage but guided his car safely to the finish to take a commanding lead going into the final stage.
«This morning I had the spin and just wasn't able to make up the gap to Mikko. I thought it was over and we' lost the chance,» Loeb said.
«But then it all changed and we were leading again. But this was really a difficult rally, changing all the time, with some strategy coming in too.
«I needed to win for sure and that's very nice but I'm not happy for what happened to Mikko because he was doing really well and it was a good battle. But okay, it's a race and these things happen sometimes.
There was nothing Hirvonen could do on the last stage, from third place and 41 seconds behind Loeb, to retrieve the lead he had held for much of the rally's three days.
«I was really confident before Whaanga Coast that we were going to win this rally but what could we do?» Hirvonen said.
«We had a slow puncture that dropped us to third.

«That's how it is now. I'm not going to let this knock my confidence. I know we can win rallies. The season isn't over yet so we just have to go flat out again on the next rallies.
The close finish was reminiscent of last year's New Zealand rally which was decided on the final stage and in which Loeb was beaten by 0.3 seconds by Marcus Gronholm _ the slimmest winning margin in WRC history.
Loeb declared before the Whaanga Coast stage that it was «impossible to get the victory». His chances had seemed to dissolve on the opening stage of the day when he spun, finished 12th and dropped 17.7 seconds off the lead.
«It was a long, long left and I went in the wrong camber,» Loeb said.
«When I pushed, the car was spinning, spinning, spinning, and I couldn't stop it. I lost a lot of time.
Sordo ended the rally in second place, 17.5 seconds behind Loeb, while Hirvonen was third, 41.5 seconds down and Petter Solberg of Norway fourth in a Subaru.