Sébastien Loeb today won the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA), the Frenchman - co-driven by Daniel Elena - amassing enough points over the season to claim the title despite not competing in Rally Australia due to injury. Had series rival Marcus Grönholm finished third or higher at the finish of this Perth-based event, the fight would have gone on to New Zealand and possibly Great Britain. However the Finn’s fifth place means Loeb’s advantage is now unassailable.
Rally Australia, the 14th round of the FIA World Rally Championship, was won by the all Finnish crew of Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen. The Ford Focus crew led for 21 of the 26 stages and claimed their maiden victory at World Championship level. The duo were pushed hard from start to finish but held off pressure from Subaru’s Petter Solberg to win by 37.1 seconds.
OMV Peugeot Norway driver Manfred Stohl equalled his best result of the season by finishing third, while Xavier Pons - piloting the number one Citroën Xsara in place of Loeb - claimed fourth for Kronos Total Citroën. Such was the tricky nature of the event, the remaining four classified world rally car crews were all outside the top six.
With the driver and co-driver titles unofficially wrapped up with two rounds remaining, the spotlight now focuses on the close battle in the FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers. First and fifth positions for the BP-Ford World Rally Team extend its lead over the Kronos Total Citroën team and, with two rounds and 36 available points remaining, the rivals are split by 16 points.
The penultimate round of the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to Hamilton for Rally New Zealand (16-19 November).
Rally Australia - Results after Leg 3 (subject to the results of routine fuel analysis)
| 1 | Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen | Ford Focus RS WRC | 3 hr 15 min 11.8sec |
| 2 | Petter Solberg/Phil Mills | Subaru Impreza WRC | 3 hr 15 min 48.9sec |
| 3 | Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor | Peugeot 307 WRC | 3 hr 19 min 10.4sec |
| 4 | Xavier Pons/Carlos Del Barrio | Citroën Xsara WRC | 3 hr 19 min 57.2sec |
| 5 | Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen | Ford Focus RS WRC | 3 hr 27 min 35.6sec |
| 6 | Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila | Subaru Impreza WRX | 3 hr 32 min 21.0sec |
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 14 of 16 rounds)
| Sébastien Loeb (F) | 112 points |
| Marcus Grönholm (S) | 91 points |
| Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) | 57 points |
| Daniel Sordo (E) | 43 points |
| Manfred Stohl (A) | 40 points |
| Petter Solberg (N) | 31 points |
| Henning Solberg (N) | 25 points |
| Xavier Pons (E) | 23 points |
| Toni Gardemeister (FIN) | 20 points |
| Chris Atkinson (AUS) | 17 points |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 14 of 16 rounds)
| BP-Ford World Rally Team | 167 points |
| Kronos Total Citroën World Rally Team | 151 points |
| Subaru World Rally Team | 94 points |
| OMV Peugeot Norway | 73 points |
| Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team | 37 points |
| Red Bull-Škoda Team | 23 points |