France's Loeb wins Rally of Catalunya

AFP - Sebastien Loeb of France, driving a Citroen C4, won the Rally of Catalunya on Sunday ahead of Norway's Petter Solberg and Spain's Dani Sordo.

Loeb was already assured of wrapping up his seventh straight drivers' title before starting the season's 12th and penultimate rally.

It was the Frenchman's seventh rally win this year, his sixth in a row in Spain and the 61st victory in his career.

Solberg, driving a privately-funded Citroen C4, managed to hold onto second place by recording the fastest time in the 16th and last special stage of the race.

Sordo briefly threatened the Norwegian by setting the fastest times in Sunday's first three stages, but he was unable to get closer than five seconds of his rival.

After the Citroen sweep of the first three places, Ford Focus vehicles were fourth and fifth through Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen. Citroen were already assured of winning the constructors' world title.