Motor Sport/Rally of Germany: World championship front-runner Sebastien Loeb won the Rally of Germany in Berlin yesterday for a fifth successive time ahead of Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo. Ford's Marcus Gronholm finished third.

The victory in the western town of Trier gave the French world champion his 26th career win, equalling the record set by two-time world champion Carlos Sainz of Spain.

Loeb now leads the championship with 84 points, well in front of Gronholm in second with 51 points. Sordo is third after nine of 16 championship races with 41 points.

"It's an honour for me to be on the same step as Carlos," said Loeb(32). "It is anything but automatic that I keep winning in Germany. There was a lot of hard work behind all of these victories."

Loeb finished 33.8 seconds in front of Spaniard Sordo after the final four stages for his sixth victory of the year. Gronholm was more than two minutes behind the winner.

"I feels great," said Loeb. "I accomplished here what I set out to do."

He added he had felt "quite a bit of pressure" from Sordo. "I really had to concentrate to get away from him."

The weather was changing constantly throughout the three-day event, with periods of heavy rain.

Loeb won five of the eight special stages on day one on Friday, and defended his lead on Saturday despite a strong challenge from Sordo and Gronholm.

Loeb is the first driver in rally history to win five straight races in a single country.