MADRID, 30 October 2004 — France’s Sebastien Loeb and Belgian Francois Duval continued their tit-for-tat duel in the Rally of Catalunya yesterday, with newly-crowned world champion Loeb snatching back his lead after five stages.
Ford driver Duval won the 13-km fourth stage, his third stage win of the race, to move in front but the French Citroen driver hit back immediately to eke out a 0.6 seconds advantage overall with victory in the fifth stage.
Loeb won the 22-km stretch from Alpens to Les Llosses by 5.2 seconds from Duval. Estonia’s Markko Martin was third in his Ford and in the same position overall, 3.3 seconds off the lead.
Duval won the first stage but damaged his bodywork when he collided with an official timing structure in slippery conditions and that hampered his second stage time badly.
Duval recovered to win the third stage to close to within one second of Loeb before taking the lead after the fourth only for the Frenchman to reassert his authority.
Sweden’s Marcus Gronholm was 13.9 seconds adrift of Loeb in fourth place in his Peugeot after five stages with local hero Carlos Sainz, who retires at the end of the season after winning two world titles, remaining fifth overall in his Citroen.
Loeb sealed the world title at the previous race in Corsica, won by Martin.
