At an event where the Frenchman had never before excelled, and under enormous pressure from title rival and BP Ford Abu Dhabi driver Mikko Hirvonen, Loeb was imperious from the very first stage.
Loeb and Finnish driver Hirvonen went into the rally separated by just one point after Loeb’s Catalunya triumph during the first weekend in October.
In short, whoever came out on top in Wales would become the 2009 World Rally Champion.
Loeb took the lead on the very first stage, the densely forested ‘Hafren 1’, opening out a 1.7 second lead over Hirvonen.
On the more open and spectator-friendly ‘Sweet Lamb 1’, both drivers were clearly right on the limit; rapidly on-and-off the throttle and slinging their cars over the jumps and through the water splashes.
Loeb extended his advantage to nearly nine seconds by the end of the third stage before Hirvonen fought back strongly from Hafren 2 onwards, cutting Loeb’s lead to just 5.3 seconds by the end of the day.
Crowd favourite Petter Solberg, along with his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills, were placed third in their Citroen Junior Team C4 on Friday night, just beating Loeb’s team-mate Dani Sordo.
On day two, after the first stage, it looked as though the close battle would continue, but Hirvonen inexplicably lost around 25 seconds to Loeb on just two stages – ‘Rhondda 1’ and ‘Crychan 1’.
The Ford man blamed technical problems but his team could find no issues with the car when he returned to Service Park D.
So, Loeb began the third day 30 seconds clear of Hirvonen, and Sordo now lay in third place, 24 seconds clear of Solberg who had experienced problems with his windscreen wipers – a big issue on the largely wet and windy stages.
As the spectators trudged their way towards the stages on Sunday, the excited chatter was all about Loeb, and what was turning out to be a famous victory.
Loeb was doing little more than pacing himself on the morning stages, initially allowing the gap between him and Hirvonen to reduce to 18.2 seconds, before Hirvonen hit trouble on Port Talbot 2 when he lost the car’s bonnet.
As a result Loeb comfortably coasted to the victory by more than a minute to win the championship by just one point.
Sordo came very close to taking second place off Hirvonen, finishing only a second behind him after over three hours of driving.
Britain’s Matthew Wilson finished in sixth place in his Stobart Ford; nearly five minutes clear of Hirvonen’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala who was slowed on the first day with hydraulic problems.
Wilson had been running in seventh at the end of day two but Sebastian Olgier rolled his Citroen Junior Team C4 into the scenery on the penultimate stage.
The young Brit, who has put in 10 solid points-scoring performances during a breakthrough season, finished seventh in the overall points standings.
He said: “We still don't know fully about next year but hopefully we will be back and will keep the momentum from this year.
The Solberg brothers, Peter and Henning, finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Conrad Rautenbach completed the points in eighth place and the other British runner Steve Perez, also in a Stobart Ford, finished in a very respectable twelfth.
Rally GB 2009, 23-25 October
Overall position after SS16:
1 Sebastian Loeb
2 Mikko Hirvonen
3 Dani Sordo
4 Petter Solberg
5 Henning Solberg
6 Matthew Wilson
7 Jarri-Matti Latvala
8 Conrad Rautenbach
Highlights:
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