After managing the gravel trails, the Citroen driver returned to the Algarve Stadium – scene of Thursday's opening stage – to confirm the 51st win of his World Rally Championship career. The playing field was transformed into a parallel asphalt track where the cars went head-to-head as thousands of cheering rally fans gathered to watch the show.

The factory Ford team's Mikko Hirvonen did what he could to break his title rival's string of victories, but had to concede defeat earlier this morning when the gap between them became too wide to overcome. The Finn and his team opted to play it safe and bring home the points for second place.

Dani Sordo's super special stage appearance amid the lights and noise crowned his overall fourth position in the standings, giving his Citroen team another points boost in regards to the championship.

The Petter Solberg Team was again pleased to claim fourth place and another top six victory out of three WRC participations.

Fifth position in the general standings had almost been promised to Matthew Wilson, yet his off and retirement on the final gravel stage prevented that from happening. Stobart Ford teammate Henning Solberg moved in to take the honours.

Of note, thanks to the efforts of the Solberg brothers and Mads Ostberg's sixth-place overall result, it is the first time that three Norwegian drivers find themselves within the top six final positions of a World Rally Championship event.

As for the Algarve Stadium super special stage itself, Henning Solberg was the fastest driver to complete the temporary track laid upon the soccer field: his best time of 2:08.8 bettered the results of teammates Dani Sordo's and Sebastien Loeb's Citroen C4 WRCs. Mikko Hirvonen's Ford Focus RS and Mads Ostberg's Adapta Team Subaru Impreza completed the top five drivers on this course.