World champion Sebastien Loeb finally got his first win of the season today with a polished performance on Rally Mexico.
Loeb, who has dominated rallying for two seasons, ended Marcus Gronholm's winning streak to move into the championship lead as he looks for a title hat-trick.
The Citroen driver wrestled the lead from Subaru rival Petter Solberg yesterday and never looked in danger on today's final three stages.
He won the first and then cruised through the remaining two to win by 48.9 seconds from Solberg.
With Gronholm having crashed on Friday, Loeb and Solberg were in a different league to their rivals and third-place man Manfred Stohl, in an OMV Peugeot, finished nearly five minutes behind.
Daniel Sordo, a protege of former world champion Carlos Sainz, scored an impressive fourth place in his Citroen while Henning Solberg was fifth in a Peugeot.
Ireland's Gareth MacHale put in his best performance in a world championship rally to claim points for sixth place in his Ford, one ahead of Subaru's Chris Atkinson.
Gronholm was allowed to rejoin with a 20-minute penalty, five for each stage he missed due to his crash, and he fought back to claim a solitary point for eighth.
The Ford driver trails Loeb by five points in the standings.
English rookie Matthew Wilson also crashed his Ford but rejoined and kept up his 100% finishing record in his debut season with 17th.
