Sebastien Loeb moved closer to a record fifth successive World Rally Championship with another dominant victory in Spain.

The Citroen driver's fourth consecutive Rally Catalunya win puts him 12 points ahead of championship rival Mikko Hirvonen, who finished third, with three rounds to go.

Dani Sordo backed Loeb up in second place, the two Citroen drivers having assumed a one-two formation from Friday morning and remaining consistently ahead of their Ford rivals.

New Irish Tarmac champion Eamonn Boland finished in 15th place in his Subaru, one place ahead of Czech Martin Prokop who won the Junior World championship category in his C2 Citroen.

Donegal driver Sean Gallagher finished 22nd overall and third in the JWRC in his Citroen but slips to third in the standings which will now see Ogier and German Aaron Burkart, just four points behind, fight it out on the final round in Corsica next week.

It proved to be a disastrous rally for Kris Meeke who had been called in to drive a Clio R3 for Renault Sport. But a puncture on the first stage put the Dungannon driver on the back foot and, plagued by brake and engine troubles, he never recovered.

Meeke was put out of his misery when the Clio stopped on the first stage of the last leg with alternator failure.

Meanwhile, Alastair Fisher scored his first outright rally win with first place in his Ford Fiesta on the Enniskillen Clubman’s Rally.

Fisher won by more than 20 seconds from the Vauxhall Astra of Harold Brown with Fabian McAleer third in his Escort. Stewart Clarke had been the leader until he crashed out on the final stage.

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There are days in a racing driver’s life when nothing seems to go right.

Adam Carroll had one yesterday as the A1 Grand Prix series began with a non-championship event at Zandvoort in Holland which saw Carrolls green Team Ireland car complete a mere six laps.

Having dominated much of Saturdays practice and qualified third on the grid for the sprint race, the Irish team was hopeful of a good result.

Carroll had pronounced himself very happy with the new 600bhp Ferrari-engined car which the teams will use this winter, and practice seemed to justify his confidence.

But with wind and rain lashing the Dutch seaside circuit yesterday, nobody was too optimistic as the field lined up for the sprint event. Carroll, however, got away well and lay third on the opening lap, only to spin on the second. The green car was then hit by the Team Monaco machine of Clivio Piccione and retired with damaged rear suspension.

The Ulsterman fared little better in the Feature race. Starting 15th he made some progress in the early laps, only to spin into retirement again after just four had been completed.