CARDIFF (AFP) - Norway's reigning world champion Petter Solberg stormed to his third straight Rally of Great Britain win to snatch victory from long time race leader Sebastien Loeb.
The Subaru driver surged to the lead in Sunday's final stage to finish 6.3sec ahead of the French Citroen Xsara driver with Estonia's Markko Martin third in a Ford Focus.
Loeb, who had been leading since Friday's second special stage, had taken a 7.3sec advantage on Solberg into the final day's racing.
On roads humid from overnight rain, the French driver took the first stage of the day, but was unable to shake off his only rival who was snapping at his heels finishing just 1.3sec behind in SS16.
The Norwegian clawed back 3.5sec in the SS17 before overtaking his rival for the first time in the rally in the following stage by gaining nearly ten seconds, with the race being decided over the final 27.55km.
"He was very fast towards the end. I made little mistakes, but not all that many," said a stunned Loeb, who nevertheless holds the world championship lead with a 28-point advantage on Solberg with four races left this season.
Solberg said the result, which was Subaru's eighth in 10 world championship rallies in Britain, was one of their greatest achievements.
"That was the biggest and most difficult win for us. It could have gone both ways," he said.
"I've never pushed so hard in my whole life as I did on the last couple of stages. For the spectators it must have been incredible."
The Norwegian had words of sympathy for title rival Loeb, who saw his hopes of a first win in Britain dashed late in the event.
"He is a very good driver. He's a really nice guy and really good fun to have a fight with," said Solberg, who joins the ranks of previous three-in-a-row winners - Swede Erik Carlsson (1960-1962), Finn Timo Makinen (1973-1975) and Briton Richard Burns (1998-2000).
Ford driver Markko Martin recovered from an engine problem Saturday to finish over two minutes off the pace, as two-time former world champion Carlos Sainz of Spain scored valuable points for Citroen in the manufacturers' championship with a fourth place finish.
Finn Harri Rovanpera was Peugeot's highest finisher in sixth after team-mate Marcus Gronholm crashed Friday morning to become the second Peugeot driver to retire after Daniel Carlsson's accident.