Loeb completed the final 26km asphalt stage without incident to bring his Citroen C4 WRC across the line with a lead of 3min24.7sec. In a faultless performance on his home rally Loeb was fastest on all but two of the 16 stages and extended his lead in the 2008 drivers’ championship to 14 points. 1 Loeb’s fourth consecutive victory on the Tour de Corse kept Citroen ahead of Ford in the manufacturers’ series by 23 points. “It’s getting better and better” said Loeb at end of the final stage. “To win here in Corsica is a great moment. We were much faster all rally and that’s great for me and the team. We’ll add another two more points to our championship lead. A 14 point lead with two rallies to go looks good. So okay, we’ll see how we get on in Japan.” As expected, on the final stage The BP Ford Abu Dhabi team manipulated the positions of the three leading Fords to slot Mikko Hirvonen into second. “I can’t celebrate it but I understand what the team is doing and I appreciate what Francois and Jari-Matti have done, but I really wish I didn’t have that puncture,” said Hirvonen. “That made things so much more difficult. We were second and we had a good speed. Okay though, here we are.” Francois Duval deliberately checked-in early to the pre-stage control on SS16, collecting a two-minute penalty and dropping behind Hirvonen in the overall standings. “I still very happy,” said Duval. That’s two rallies with no mistakes and no punctures. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven such a good car on tarmac.” A different strategy was employed for Jari-Matti Latvala, who was told to check in nine minutes late, collect 90sec of penalty time and drop behind Duval to fourth. “We want to do everything we can for the team,” he said. “Of course personally I’m disappointed but nobody can take away the experience and the confidence I have got here. It’ll be a completely different story on the gravel rallies which follow.”