Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

Newly-crowned double champion Sebastien Loeb has capped a dominant season with a first win on his home event, the Rallye de France. The Citroen ace won all 12 stages with a display of utter dominance on the asphalt roads of Corsica, building a 1m40s lead over Ford's Toni Gardemeister to secure his ninth win of 2005.

Loeb went into the first of two back-to-back sealed-surface events as the pre-rally favourite, despite never having won in France before, but he lived up to all the hype with a display of driving that was both rapid and measured at the same time. Only a chance encounter with an on-stage cow - in a bizarre repeat of a similar incident in Argentina - threatened the Loeb steamroller, but Citroen left Corsica disappointed after failing to seal its third consecutive manufacturers' title on home soil.

Francois Duval was second on Friday's opening leg, and, despite brake problems on Saturday, was fourth going into Sunday. He looked set to push hard to get back on the podium, but perhaps applied a little too much effort on the opening test of the day as he rolled his Xsara WRC out of the rally. Although Peugeot's double champion Marcus Gronholm had already been forced out of the event on Friday after a problem with a new gearbox on his 307 WRC, Loeb's 10 points for victory weren't enough to put the makes' crown out of Peugeot's reach and into Citroen's hands.

The demise of Loeb's closest rivals allowed Ford's Toni Gardemeister to take second. The Finn - who defies his national stereotype, by being as quick on asphalt as on gravel - fully deserved his third podium of the year after a superb drive. Subaru's Petter Solberg and Stephane Sarrazin boosted the Japanese team's fortunes on sealed-surface events with third and fourth, allowing Solberg to match the absent Gronholm's tally for second place in the drivers' standings. Fifth place for Roman Kresta, however, allowed Ford to stay ahead of Subaru in the scrap for third in the manufacturers' standings on a weekend on which the Blue Oval celebrated the 100th outing for the Focus WRC.

French asphalt ace Alex Bengue gave Skoda an end-of-season boost with a competitive fifth place, but team leader Armin Schwarz was forced out with excessive tyre wear and Jan Kopecky could only manage 10th. Citroen privateer Xavier Pons finished a solid seventh, while Peugeot draftee Nicolas Bernardi brought home two manufacturers' points on his debut for the French team with eighth. Mitsubishi's Gigi Galli and Harri Rovanpera finished ninth and 10th, but asphalt ace Gilles Panizzi couldn't boost the team's fortunes as he had been forced out of his home event with engine related problems on Saturday after a weekend on which even he admitted he'd struggled to find his usual sealed-surface pace.