Last updated 11:45, Monday, 03 November 2008

DOVENBY-based BP Ford raced to a one/two result in Rally Japan at the weekend but it wasn’t enough to stop Citroen’s Sébastien Loeb claiming his fifth world championship.
 
Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen won the event with team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila second. 

With one event left, the Rally GB in Cardiff on December 4-7, the M-Sport-run Ford team still have a chance of retaining the manufacturers’ title they’ve won for the last two seasons. Ford are 11 points behind Citroen.
 
Hirvonen and Latvala were in first and second throughout in Japan but Loeb was able to finish third which was enough for him to take the drivers’ championship.
 
West Cumbrian, Matthew Wilson, finished seventh to move him into 10th place in the overall standings.

Unfortunately Stobart's other crew François Duval/Patrick Pivato had to retire after an accident on stage 6 saw the French co-driver airlifted to Higashi Tokushukai hospital in Sapporo with a fractured pelvis and fractured tibia.

He currently remains in a stable but critical condition with doctors reporting continued positive improvement in his progress.