From the World Rally Championship

Citroen Total team driver Sebastien Loeb has won the FxPro Cyprus Rally by a margin of 27.2 seconds from the man in second place, Mikko Hirvonen of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team.

Loeb brought his C4 WRC cleanly through the final 11km gravel stage to notch up his third consecutive win of the season and the 50th of his record breaking WRC career.

But while the Citroen team celebrated Loeb's win, there was drama too, when the French firm's Junior team driver Sebastien Ogier crashed out of fifth place on a hairpin bend 200metres before the finish.

Mikko Hirvonen's Ford Focus clinched second position, while jubilant Petter Solberg took the final podium spot in his Citroen Xsara, and became the first privateer to make a WRC podium since Daniel Carlsson on the 2006 Sweden Rally.

Loeb's Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo finished fourth and said the WRC title races were more important than battling Petter for third - especially as the Norwegian was not registered in the manufacturers' contest.

Martin Prokop (Citroen C2) of the Czech Republic moved into the lead of the Junior World Rally Championship standings after taking the class victory in Cyprus.