Frenchman Sebastien Loeb won the Rally de Espana on Sunday to ensure his fight for a sixth World Rally Championship title will go to the final round.

It was Loeb's fifth consecutive win on the all-asphalt Spanish round of the series, the 53rd of his impressive WRC career and his sixth of the current campaign.

Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo was second, 12 seconds adrift, guaranteeing the French firm the manufacturers' title with one round to go.

Loeb told www.wrc.com: "This one was tough because Dani was pushing very hard at the start, so we tried to fight, but we knew we must not make any mistakes just fighting together - it was so important for us to finish.

"It was really a pleasure to drive again on tarmac, for me it's been a long time since we did it.

"And the result now should be perfect, I'm really happy, I enjoyed it a lot."

Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen was third but the Ford Focus driver now has a one-point lead over five-time defending champion Loeb ahead of the final round of the championship, the Rally GB in Wales later this month.

Citroen's Petter Solberg sealed his best tarmac result since 2005 to finish fourth, while Citroen Junior team driver Sebastien Ogier was fifth.

Jari-Matti Latvala was sixth, Britain's Matthew Wilson was seventh and Argentinian Federico Villagra took the final championship point for finishing eighth in another Ford Focus.

Leading final positions after Stage 18: 1 Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen 3hrs 22mins 14.700secs, 2 Daniel Sordo (Spa) Citroen 3:22:26.700, 3 Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 3:23:08.800, 4 Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru 3:23:27.100, 5 Sebastien Ogier (Fra) Citroen 3:23:56.300, 6 Jari-Matti Latvala (Fin) Ford 3:25:04.500, 7 Matthew Wilson (Gbr) Ford 3:29:30.200, 8 Federico Villagra (Arg) Ford 3:30:42.800, 9 Henning Solberg (Nor) Ford 3:31:22.300, 10 Dany Snobeck (Fra) Peugeot 3:33:10.700

Drivers Championship Standings: 1 Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Ford 84pts, 2 Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen 83, 3 Daniel Sordo (Spa) Citroen 58, 4 Jari-Matti Latvala (Fin) Ford 39, 5 Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru 30, 6 Henning Solberg (Nor) Ford 29, 7 Matthew Wilson (Gbr) Ford 25, 8 Sebastien Ogier (Fra) Citroen 24, 9 Federico Villagra (Arg) Ford 16, 10 Conrad Rautenbach (Zim) Citroen 8

Manufacturers Championship Standings: 1 Citroen 151pts, 2 Ford 130, 3 Stobart 73, 4 Citroen Junior 42, 5 Munchi 23