LOEB WINS RALLY MEXICO.(Sebastien Loeb )

Citron's reigning champion Sebastien Loeb took his first World Rally Championship win of the year in Mexico, moving into the series lead with a five-point advantage over Ford driver Marcus Gronholm.

Subaru's Petter Solberg was Loeb's biggest rival over the three-day Mexico event. Solberg failed to score points at the opening rounds in Monte Carlo and Sweden and was under big pressure to repeat last year's Mexico win.

He was on track to do so for most of the first two days. Taking advantage of better road position than Loeb, Solberg ended the first day in the lead. But Loeb did not give up. The Frenchman blasted through the opening stage of day two to end up leading by less than a second.

It was the start of an epic battle, with the pair never separated by more than a handful of seconds-until an unlucky stage 13: Solberg clipped a small rock on the inside of a corner and broke his power steering, dropping 23 seconds to Loeb. On the next stage a Solberg spin and stall put a win out of reach.

It was an unlucky event for Ford as well. Having won the first two rallies of the season, Gronholm was forced to run first on the road in Mexico and sweep up loose gravel for other competitors. The Finn still climbed as high as third, but went off during the opening afternoon on a blind corner.

Gronholm's young teammate, Mikko Hirvonen, was in a better position, taking advantage of a good road position to end day one in second overall-less than five seconds behind Solberg. But all of Hirvonen's hard work was undone when he crashed after taking a crest too quickly on day two's first stage.

Peugeot driver Manfred Stohl finished third, having steered clear of trouble throughout the rally. With the next two rallies both on asphalt-Loeb's favorite surface-the Citron driver is favored to extend his hard-fought championship lead.