Ford's Mikko Hirvonen cruised to victory on the Rally of Poland to take the lead of the World Rally Championship.
The Finn won by over a minute from the Citroen of Dani Sordo to claim his second consecutive win and overtake reigning champion Sebastien Loeb, moving a point clear at the top of the drivers' standings.
Hirvonen spent the last day maintaining his advantage of around 10 seconds over team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, with title rival Loeb managing to fight his way back into the points after he had come to grief on the first full day of the event when he hit a tree stump and broke his front suspension on stage four.
The win means Hirvonen has turned a 20-point deficit to Loeb into a one-point lead in the space of just three rallies - a series of events that barely seemed credible after Loeb had won the first five events of the season.
But Hirvonen's joy was tempered as Latvala relinquished his second place on the final stage of the event, a short Super Special in Mikolajki.
The Finn clipped a barrel on his way into a right hand corner, hitting a metal barrier and retiring on the spot, leaving Hirvonen stunned.
"It's unbelievable, I can't believe what I'm seeing," said the 28-year-old. "It has been a fantastic weekend for me, but this is amazing."
Sordo had tried to mount a bid to overhaul the Fords this morning but he opted to settle for what looked like third place after he overshot a corner on the first of the day's five stages, before Latvala's error gifted him second spot.
Norway's Henning Solberg eventually claimed third place for Stobart Ford ahead of brother Petter's Citroen Xsara, after an engine failure had robbed Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier of a potential podium finish on stage 16.
Britain's Matthew Wilson was fifth ahead of local favourite Krzysztof Holowczyc, while Citroen driver Loeb eventually claimed two points after Junior Team driver Conrad Rautenbach stopped on the penultimate stage to allow the Frenchman to claim eighth position, before Latvala made his final stage mistake to promote him to seventh.
The Frenchman admitted he was grateful to have salvaged some points following his error on Friday.
"I will not say it's a good result but earlier on I didn't expect to take any points here," said Loeb.
"The points are very important for me. We don't have too many and maybe they will be very important at the end of the season."
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