Sebastien Loeb wins record-equaling fourth consecutive championship at Wales Rally
>CARDIFF, Wales (AP) - Sebastien Loeb won a fourth consecutive world championship when he finished third in the season-ending Wales Rally on Sunday.
The Frenchman, who needed to finish at least fifth to equal Tommi Makinen's 1996-99 record for consecutive titles, finished 1 minute, 17.8 seconds behind race winner Mikko Hirvonen.
Marcus Gronholm, who lost the lead in the standings when he crashed out of last month's Rally Ireland, finished in second place - 15.2 seconds off Hirvonen's total time of 3 hours, 22 minutes, 50.9 seconds.
Loeb went into the race six points clear of Gronholm, the 2000 and 2002 champion who plans to retire at the end of the season.
The Citroen driver managed to win just one of the three-day race's 17 stages - coming in joint first with Gronholm in Friday's fifth - but still took six points for finishing third to end up with a four-point final advantage.
"It's incredible," Loeb said. "It was really a great championship this year. We had a big, big fight with Marcus all the time and to finish with only a four-point lead is really a great moment.
"It was my best battle; I think the nicest championship."
Loeb is the third driver after Juha Kankkunen of Finland and Makinen to win four world titles.
