Sebastien Loeb must beat Gronholm to win

LONDON – Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb must beat Finnish rival Marcus Gronholm in Ireland this weekend to revive his hopes of a fourth successive world rally championship.

The Frenchman starts the penultimate round of a knife-edge season four points adrift of the Ford driver, who is retiring next month, despite having won seven rallies so far to Gronholm’s five. Should Loeb fail to score points for the fourth time this season, Gronholm will need to finish only second in Sligo on Sunday to clinch his own third title.The odds are that the battle will go down to the wire in the muddy Welsh forests in the final Rally of Britain next month but Loeb knows he has his work cut out in Ireland’s world championship debut.He cannot afford another mistake like the one in Japan three weeks ago where he crashed out after Gronholm had already retired from the event.”The overall result in Japan leaves us in the same situation we have been in for some events now,” he said in a team preview.”We’ve absolutely got to win.The event, the third new rally on the 2007 calendar, straddles north and south with a total of 20 stages over the three days.Nampa-ReutersShould Loeb fail to score points for the fourth time this season, Gronholm will need to finish only second in Sligo on Sunday to clinch his own third title.The odds are that the battle will go down to the wire in the muddy Welsh forests in the final Rally of Britain next month but Loeb knows he has his work cut out in Ireland’s world championship debut.He cannot afford another mistake like the one in Japan three weeks ago where he crashed out after Gronholm had already retired from the event.”The overall result in Japan leaves us in the same situation we have been in for some events now,” he said in a team preview.”We’ve absolutely got to win.The event, the third new rally on the 2007 calendar, straddles north and south with a total of 20 stages over the three days.Nampa-Reuters