Sebastian Loeb clinched his second World Rally win of the season in Mexico on Sunday ( 2nd March) by winning all three of the final stages.
The four-time world champion from France finished the three-day rally in his Citroen in 3 hours, 33 minutes, 29.9 seconds.
Chris Atkinson of Australia was second in his Suburu, 1:06.1 behind Loeb, while Ford's Jari Matti Latvala of Finland took third, 1:39.7 back.
World Rally Champion, Sebastian Loeb, started the third and final day of the Mexican rally in Guanajuato on Sunday ( 2nd March) with a comfortable lead of one minute and 1.6 seconds over his nearest rival, Chris Atkinson of the Subaru team.
The 34 year old Frenchman was looking for his second victory of the season to go alongside his win in Monte Carlo.
Current overall leader, Mikko Hirvonen, started the day in fifth place but a series of punctures over the final stages put paid to any hope of him mounting a serious challenge on the leader board and he had to be content with a fourth place finish.
Ford driver Henning Solberg had a puncture on the penultimate stage which saw him slip from fourth place to fifth place.
Jari-Matti Latvala of Finland, who had led the race after the first day before suffering turbo problems on the second, held on to clinch third place but will have been disappointed at his failure to retain the title that he won in 2007.
Australian Subaru driver, Chris Atkinson, had kept pace with Loeb over much of day two but was hampered by clutch problems.
A solid performance on the final day saw him take second place however, a morale boosting career best placing which bodes well for the remainder of the season.
In the end, Loeb held on for an important victory, with the ten points he secured giving his hopes of retaining his World title a welcome boost.
Hironven remains top of the overall standings with 21 points. Loeb has now moved up to second on 20 points while Latvala lies in third on 16.
