The Italian round confirmed that, also this year, Loeb will be the one to beat. His victory in Sardinia was anyway more difficult than the others gained in the first part of the season. In fact, Marcus Gronholm held on with his Ford Focus but he had to retire at the beginning of leg 2 when he hit a rock losing his engine's oil.
The Finnish driver retired, the battle for the lead was over, as Loeb began to gain time on all the others. With this win, his fifth out of seven races so far, puts Loeb alone far ahead in the world championship standings with a 31-point advantage over Gronholm.
Once Gronholm was out, another Finn managed to gain a good place: Mikko Hirvonen, from Ford too, took second place and achieved his best result in the world championship. Hirvonen, after taking second place, didn't have problems to guard it until the end of the race.
The only to push him was Daniel Sordo, driver of another Citroen Xsara WRC. The twenty-three years old Spaniard confirmed once more to be the real revelation of this year, taking third position in the championship, just five points behind Gronholm.
Another Spaniard, Xavier Pons, with the second Citoren Xsara WRC from the Kronos Total team, finished in fourth position.
Behind the first four is Jussi Valimaki, with his Mitsubishi Lancer WRC, Kristian Sohlberg, Manfred Stohl, and Francois Duval, the last one to score a point with his Skoda Fabia WRC.
Not so lucky Gigi Galli, who couldn't compete in the last leg. The engine problems he had yesterday reappeared just near the finish line, making him stop. A pity for the Italian, who was fourth when he had to stop.
