French reigning triple world champion Sebastien Loeb claimed the Rally of France in Corsica on Sunday ahead of world championship leader Marcus Gronholm and Spaniard Dani Sordo.
"It's always a big moment for me when I win in Corsica because I've got lots of good memories from here," Loeb said.
"It was a vital victory and it was a big battle. We had to rip it up, particularly at the beginning because we struggled to get ahead of Marcus on Friday," he said.
Loeb had opened up a small lead on Friday and extended it on Saturday as Gronholm, a twice former world champion, settled for second place and concentrated on not making any mistakes.
Gronholm was satisfied with his showing.
"It was a good weekend and maybe my best race on tarmac," he said.
And he is relishing every last battle with Loeb, the other dominant rally driver over the course of the last few years.
"I'm going to miss these battles with `Seb' after I retire, but if I retire as world champion, I'll miss them less," Gronholm said.
It was the seventh victory in 13 rallies this season for Loeb and cuts Gronholm's world championship lead to four points with three rallies to go. If Loeb wins all three he is guaranteed to retain his title.
"Clawing back two points on Marcus is better than nothing but if he's second in every rally to the end of the season that means I've got to win all three," Loeb said.
"It's not finished yet but it is winnable and it will be difficult. There's no calculations to make, I can't afford not to win [every race]," he said.
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