Nick Koan

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Full Story from wrc.com

Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb says he's delighted to have won his third rally of the year and his second on the trot on this weekend's Supermag Rally Italia Sardinia. The Citroen ace beat Subaru's Petter Solberg by a comprehensive margin and has passed the Norwegian to re-take the lead of the drivers' points standings.

Loeb and his Citroen team have proved dominant on the hot-weather gravel rallies in New Zealand three weeks ago and Sardinia this weekend. Although their tyre supplier, Michelin, correctly predicted that the weather would be hotter and drier than expected and made a better choice of compounds as a result, it is an ominous warning for Solberg, Subaru and their tyre supplier Pirelli about how much Citroen, Loeb and Michelin have improved on hot gravel events. The next three rounds in Cyprus, Turkey and Greece are likely to feature similar conditions.

Loeb admitted that Saturday's long leg had proved crucial to his winning margin of over a minute. "I wanted to take it steadily, but I upped my pace in the afternoon because I wanted to go into Sunday with a sufficient cushion because the final leg was made up of six stages without a service break," Loeb said. "I pushed quite hard while trying to drive as cleanly as possible. This is the sort of event where you can end up losing time if you try to hard. You risk hitting trouble."

Loeb's Citroen team-mate, Francois Duval, scored two manufacturers' points for the team with 11th position, despite having been forced to pull out of the event on Friday's opening leg. That has allowed the French team to close on sister company Peugeot in the manufacturers' standings. Peugeot leads the table with 54 points, while Citroen is now just 11 behind on 43. Both teams are pulling out of the sport at the end of the year and Peugeot is keen to end its campaign with four manufacturers' titles in the modern WRC era to Citroen's current two, rather than a dead heat of three each.

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Nick Koan

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Subaru pledges title fightback

2003 world champion Petter Solberg and his Subaru team have pledged that they can return to winning form and take on Citroen for the title after being beaten by the French car giant on the last two rallies. Solberg now lies one point behind reigning champion Sebastien Loeb after his dominant wins in New Zealand and Sardinia.

Loeb and Citroen were able to take advantage of better performance from their hard Michelin tyres on both events after picking a more conservative compound, especially on the second run through stages after the loose gravel had been cleared off the road. Solberg, Subaru and Pirelli, on the other hand, opted for a more aggressive, softer compound which was less effective in the unexpectedly hot conditions on the events.

"We had a little problem on the first day and, the same as in New Zealand, we didn't have a chance against Sebastien and his team," Solberg said. "So, you have to go into the box and think about what we can do, do it as a team and figure out how we can beat them on the next rally. The team and Pirelli did the correct choice, but we still have to improve."

Subaru team boss David Lapworth admitted that the unexpectedly warm weather had caught the team on the hop in New Zealand and Sardinia, but said that the team had been highly-focused on testing for the rougher Mediterranean rallies in Cyprus, Turkey and Greece that form the next three-rally portion of the calendar.

"In the surprisingly warm conditions we experienced, it was always going to be difficult, especially with Petter running first on the road on leg one," Lapworth said. "Petter drove well all rally. He and Sebastien made it a two-horse race, but Loeb's advantage on the second run through stages proved too much. The eight points keeps the championship battle wide open, and it will be interesting to see what happens on the forthcoming gravel rallies. The next three events form the toughest part of the season, and they've been the focus of our preparation for the last few months."