MOTOR SPORT/World Rally Championship: Frenchman Sebastien Loeb clinched his third world rally championship yesterday when Marcus Gronholm finished fifth behind Finnish compatriot Mikko Hirvonen in the rally of Australia.

Loeb was forced to skip the rally after breaking his arm in a cycling accident earlier this month but secured the title with two rounds to go when his last remaining rival bowed out of contention.

"To win the title is a very nice feeling," Loeb said. "Luckily for me, I had a good number of points before I had my accident.

"When you are at home and you know you can't drive and you're watching the rally on the internet, it's very difficult, very frustrating to not be able to fight. It's good to know that we won the championship."

Gronholm, world champion in 2000 and 2002, needed to finish in the first four to have any mathematical chance of overtaking Loeb but could only manage fifth place after rolling his Ford while leading the rally on the first day.

"This was the best we could hope for after our crash on Friday," he said. "There was no chance to climb higher unless the other drivers had problems."

Hirvonen capitalised on his team-mate's accident and the absence of Loeb to capture his first rally win, completing the treacherous 26-stage event around the Western Australia capital Perth in an aggregate time of three hours, 15 minutes and 11.8 seconds.

Norway's Petter Solberg, the 2003 world champion, finished second in a Subaru, 37.1 seconds behind Hirvonen, despite hitting a rock on the third yesterday's six concluding stages.

Austrian Manfred Stohl was third overall in his Peugeot while Spain's Xavier Pons, driving a Citroen in the absence of the injured Loeb, finished fourth.