LLORET DE MAR, Spain, 27 October 2003 — Frenchman Gilles Panizzi snatched a last-gasp Rally of Catalunya victory yesterday while compatriot Sebastien Loeb’s second place made him the new world championship leader with only one race remaining.
Citroen driver Loeb, who had led for virtually the entire race in Catalunya, let a 31-second advantage slip on a rain-lashed final stage, with fellow Frenchman Panizzi producing a dazzling performance in his Peugeot to claim the win.
Luckily for Loeb his fellow Citroen driver Carlos Sainz, who had come to Catalunya with a three-point lead in the drivers’ standings, fared even worse on the final stage.
The Spaniard, bidding for a third world title 11 years after his last, dropped from fourth to seventh after spinning out late in the stage. The results left Loeb and Sainz level on 63 points at the top of the world championship table, with the Frenchman ahead by virtue of his three race victories this season to one for Sainz.
Norwegian Petter Solberg, who improved from 10th to fifth in his Subaru on the final day, is a point behind in third, while Briton Richard Burns is now fourth, five points behind Loeb and Sainz after abandoning on the 19th stage in Catalunya.
An impossibly close title race will be decided between those four drivers at the British Rally from Nov. 6 to 9. Loeb had enjoyed a comfortable lead going into the final day but the intense rain changed the race. Solberg, who struggled for two days on the dry tarmac, suddenly found the form that took him to victory in Corsica last week, and he won the opening stage ahead of his Subaru teammate Tommi Makinen.
He then claimed third spot in the short second stage and finished second behind Makinen in the third stage.
