Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb grabbed his sixth World Rally Championship last Sunday after winning the Rally Great Britain.

Before the start of the rally, Loeb was one point behind Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen in the Driver’s championship. Loeb however dominated the rally, earning for himself maximum points and the championship.

After the rally, Hirvonen admitted that he had been too cautious during the early rounds of Friday’s race. He then tried to catch up, cutting Loeb’s nine-second lead down to 2.4 seconds by the seventh special stage.

However, Loeb made a stunning run during the next two SS’s opening the gap to a comfortable 25 seconds.

On Sunday, Hirvonen started closing in on Loeb’s time once again but his hood came loose on the penultimate SS and blocked his view forcing him to stop and remove it, which ensured Loeb’s victory.

"It has been an incredible season – a very good start then we lost everything in the middle of the season," said Loeb. "It was big, big pressure and I'm really happy about this one because Mikko was really, really strong. It was an incredible battle all season."

Hirvonen was predictably disappointed to miss out on the title after coming so close.

"I need to get back to work and find more speed for next year," he said. "We are now really close to Sebastien and that feels good, but it's still a big disappointment in the end."