Banbury's Subaru World Rally team drivers Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson finished in the top ten of the Cyprus Rally.

Solberg came in eighth, ahead of his Australian team-mate, but out in front Frenchman Sebastien Loeb continued to rewrite the history books by securing a record-breaking 28th WRC victory of his short career.

Partnered by Daniel Elena, Loeb moved ahead of arch rival Marcus Grnholm, from Finland, on the 14th sinuous gravel special stage in the Troodos foothills and the Paphos valleys and eventually reached the finish with a comfortable winning margin of 21.2 seconds.

The victory - the Frenchman's eighth of the season - virtually assures him a third WRC title in Turkey in a few weeks' time and maintains the Kronos Total Citron Team's advantage over BP-Ford in the Manufacturers' series, albeit to a reduced advantage of just seven points, with four events still to run.

Loeb said: "Another great win for me. It was another difficult challenge here in Cyprus and Marcus pushed me very hard for two days. Now we can hopefully go to Turkey and confirm the championship."

Grnholm was forced to play the bridesmaid once again, but collected eight valuable championship points for the Ford team and Finnish team-mate Mikko Hirvonen was third overall in a second Ford Focus to add six more to the Blue Oval's points' tally.