Absent Loeb seals title hat-trick

Maserati · Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:05 pm Post subject: Absent Loeb seals title hat-trick

Sebastien Loeb of France claimed the world rally championship for the third time as his closest rival Marcus Gronholm could only place fifth in the Rally of Australia.

Gronholm needed to finish fourth or better to have a mathematical chance of overhauling Loeb who was at home recovering from the broken arm he sustained in a mountain bike accident.

Gronholm's Ford teammate and Finnish compatriot Mikko Hirvonen won the race with Gronholm left to rue a first day crash that cost him valuable time.

2003 world champion Petter Solberg of Norway finished second with Austrian Manfred Stohl in third.

"Luckily for me I had a good number of points before I had my accident," Loeb said on the world rally championship Web site.

"When you are at home and you know you can't drive and you're watching the rally on the Internet, it's very difficult; very frustrating to not be able to fight," he added. "It's good to know that we won the championship."

Loeb, 32, joined Tommi Makinen and Juha Kankkunen, both of Finland, as the only drivers to win at least three world titles.

Kankkunen won four in 1986, 1987, 1991 and 1993 and Makinen four in a row from 1996-99.

Plex · Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:49 pm Post subject:

Sebastien Loeb not easy...