Latvala and Anttila Win for Ford in Wales; Loeb Second; Solberg Third

Jari-Matti Latvala and his co-driver Miikka Anttila have broken Sebastian Loeb's winning streak by taking the win at the Rally Great Britain. Loeb had won every rally since the Rally Argentina in April. Loeb did manage to break a Ford 1-2 finish by beating Petter Solberg. Mikko Hirvonen won the Power Stage but was fifth overall. 

Latvala dominated the Rally Great Britain and won with an over 30 second lead. The major fight on the last day was between Loeb and Solberg. Loeb took second early in the morning on Saturday, and then Solberg was able to get passed him later in the day. Finally, Loeb put in one last push to pass Solberg again and take second. 

Mads Ostberg finished fourth. He performed well during the rally, but the engine began giving up on the final day. He was still able to nurse the car to the finish line. 

“We had basically decided to retire because I was struggling so much just to get up to the time control for the first stage. We were speaking to the team on the telephone and the connection was bad and it was not brilliant on the radio either and we did not know if they told us to stop or to try to continue. We managed to start but we were struggling on the uphill sections and the engine was making a really bad noise," said Ostberg. 

On the first day, Petter Solberg led early on, and then Latvala moved into the lead. On Saturday, Latvala led the entire day and had a 12.1 second lead at the beginning of the day and ending it with a 30.9 second lead.