All hail King Sebastian!

“All hail King Sebastien” wouldn't sound too untoward these days. A week ago, he was preparing to clinch his record-breaking 9^th World Title (Seb has held the record for number of World Driver's Titles since he claimed his fifth title, four years ago). This week, however, the most successful rally driver ever to live is contemplating what he'll do now that he's going to cut back on his WRC outings.

A tribute to the now legendary driver will follow soon, but for now we'll concentrate on the Rally de France Alsace, which, unsurprisingly, Loeb won to clinch his 9^th World Title. Perhaps fittingly, he took the title in front of his adoring home fans, as well as family and friends.

Theirry Neuville was fastest out of the blocks on Thursday evening, winning the 3km Strasbourg street stage that opened the rally by 0.8 secs over Jari-Matti Latvala. Loeb was seventh, 1.6 secs off the pace. However that's the closest anybody came to beating him at home.

“It’s incredible. We were dreaming about this moment at the start of the rally having lived this two years ago. Now we are here again with the victory and the championship in front of all these wonderful people. It’s not possible to get better than this, it was a dream all weekend in front of all these fans. We couldn’t believe the atmosphere two years ago, it was amazing then and it’s amazing now.” said Loeb at the finish.

Rocketing into the lead on SS2, that's where Loeb was to stay until the end. However, on what he hailed as his best ever Tarmac rally, Latvala kept Loeb honest throughout the rally. In the end he was only 15 secs behind Loeb, but it could be argued that Loeb was only doing what he had to do in order to win the title, and taking no risks at the same time. What is undoubtedly true, however, is that Latvala is rapidly gaining pace on Tarmac.

“To be honest it is my best Tarmac result. I have never ever been so close to Sebastien Loeb on a Tarmac rally if you think about the overall gap so I need to be happy.” said the Finnish Ford star.

Mikko Hirvonen took the final podium spot, 44 secs off team-mate Loeb, after a fight with Petter Solberg early in the rally, an excellent result on only his second full tarmac rally in the Citroen DS3 WRC. Theirry Neuville cemented his position as a man to watch in the very near future with a fine fourth place after having lead after SS1.

Mads Ostberg moved ahead of works driver Petter Solberg in the overall points table with fifth place in France. He now sits six points from Jari-Matti Latvala, the top Ford driver in the WRC Driver's table. Ott Tanak and Evgney Novikov took sixth and seventh places, respectively.

Chris Atkinson took eighth place on his second event in the MINI John Cooper Works WRC on Tarmac. Former regular co-driver Glenn Macneall returned to co-drive for Atkinson after Stephane Prevot wasn't available for the rally. The last time Macneall sat in a WRC car was Rallye de Portugal five years ago (admittedly with a much less 'refined' Atkinson), with the Aussie pairings rally ending after the Subaru Impreza S12 WRC was launched off the road at a rapid pace, landing in a field with a fair thump.

“It’s definitely been a lot of fun so far: although these cars are mightily quick I don’t seem to have forgotten too much. So I’m loving every minute of it, and it’s been great to catch up with Chris again. The cars are just as exciting as they always were: who wouldn’t enjoy it?” said Macneall.

Martin Prokop took ninth place while WRC newcomer Sebastian Chardonnet took tenth place, on his début in a Citroen DS3 WRC.

Perhaps the most spectacular retirement from the rally was of Petter Solberg, who's Ford Fiesta RS WRC rocketed off the road and into some vines on SS9. As most drivers would do, he kept his foot down in the hope he would find the road again and continue on. With leaves and branches flying in through a large hole left in the roof after the roof vent was torn off by vine, Solberg drove in the direction he thought the road was. However he found the road a bit too soon, launching out of the vines, across the road and straight into an electric pole, taking it down in the process. The impact broke the steering arm and track control arm, rendering the Fiesta un-drivable.

Explaining the crash, Solberg said: “All the driving before was absolutely perfect. I knew the road was going up on the right again but there were leaves on the windscreen and I couldn’t see. From the outside it looks like ‘why don’t I brake’ but I knew the approximate distance and I was waiting for an open area. I went more on the throttle to get back up to the road again so I don’t get stuck but that’s obviously the decision you take in a split second.”

Others not making it to the finish were Nasser Al-Attiyah, Daniel Olivera, Paulo Nobre and Dani Sordo.

Craig Breen has moved into a two point lead in the S-WRC after his second straight victory in the class. Yazeed Al-Rajhi went off the road on the second-last stage, but still held onto second place. PG Andersson took third after alternator failure put him out at the end of Day 2. His fellow PROTON driver Andreas Aigner took fourth and last of the S-WRC finishers, after Hayden Paddon found himself in a ditch on Day 3.

Evan Evans took yet another win in the FIA WRC Academy in France to round off a fantastic year for the Welsh ace, with it all culminating in the FIA WRC Academy title. Jose Suarez took second, 42 secs off Evans, with John MacCrone third.