Frenchman Sébastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena once again put in a dominant performance on the Cyprus Rally and notched up their third consecutive win on the island and eighth of the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship season. While the Citroën Xsara duo fought hard with early leader Marcus Grönholm during the first leg, Grönholm’s hopes of victory disappeared with a spin and a bad tyre choice during the second. Grönholm ultimately finished second, 21.2 seconds adrift with BP-Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen third overall.
In the FIA World Rally Championship, maximum points for Loeb now gives him a 35 point advantage over Marcus Grönholm, with Daniel Sordo maintaining third despite retiring from the event. Mikko Hirvonen is however catching the Spaniard and is now just two points adrift in fourth position. However, the fight for honours in the Manufacturers’ Championship remains intense. Kronos Total Citroën maintains its lead, but BP-Ford’s two podium positions have slashed the deficit to the Belgian team to just seven points with four rounds remaining.
Behind Mikko Hirvonen, Austrian Manfred Stohl (Peugeot 307) was unable to equal his 2005 performance, where he finished second overall, and returned to the finish in fourth ahead of privateer Toni Gardemeister (Citroën Xsara). Henning Solberg (Peugeot 307) rounded off the top six, having climbed two places firstly when brother Petter dropped time after hitting a rock and damaging a wheel and then when Xavier Pons slipped to seventh with transmission problems just before the finish. The leading retirement of the day was Daniel Sordo, who crashed in the Lemesos stage, despite it being run non-competitively for safety reasons. He lost valuable points for the team in its fight for the Manufacturers’ Championship.
The next round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to the Rally of Turkey (13-15 October).
Cyprus Rally – Results after Leg 3 (subject to routine fuel analysis)
| 1 | Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena | Citroën Xsara WRC | 4 hr 40 min 50.4sec |
| 2 | Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen | Ford Focus RS WRC | 4 hr 41 min 11.6sec |
| 3 | Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen | Ford Focus RS WRC | 4 hr 46 min 06.5sec |
| 4 | Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor | Peugeot 307 WRC | 4 hr 47 min 30.1sec |
| 5 | Toni Gardemeister/Jakke Honkanen | Citroën Xsara WRC | 4 hr 49 min 30.8sec |
| 6. Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud | Peugeot 307 WRC | 4 hr 55 min 30.4sec | |
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 12 of 16 rounds)
| Sébastien Loeb (F) | 112 points |
| Marcus Grönholm (S) | 77 points |
| Daniel Sordo (E) | 41 points |
| Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) | 39 points |
| Manfred Stohl (A) | 33 points |
| Petter Solberg (N) | 23 points |
| Toni Gardemeister (FIN) | 20 points |
| Henning Solberg (N) | 19 points |
| Gigi Galli (I) | 15 points |
| Chris Atkinson (AUS) | 14 points |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 12 of 16 rounds)
| Kronos Total Citroën World Rally Team | 142 points |
| BP-Ford World Rally Team | 135 points |
| Subaru World Rally Team | 79 points |
| OMV Peugeot Norway | 59 points |
| Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team | 30 points |
| Red Bull-Škoda Team | 22 points |