Citroen driver Sebastian Loeb of France has been stripped of his win in this year’s Rally Australia.

Sebastian Loeb lost the rally after all three Citroen C4s received one minute penalties for a technical infringement.

The stewards’ gives the win to Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen, who further extends his championship lead to five points with just two rounds to go.

The penalties were imposed on the cars of Loeb, his team-mate Dani Sordo and Citroen Junior driver Sebastian Ogier - who had finished third and fourth due to “an irregularity in their cars’ anti-rollbars”.

Loeb won the event on the road by 12.5 seconds from series leader Hirvonen. Hirvonen’s battle with Spanish Citroen driver Dani Sordo was a thriller, the two traded places five times in 10 stages.

Hirvonen entered the final stage with a 2.1sec advantage, which he extended to 4.6 seconds to beat Sordo.

Asia/Pacific Rally Champion, Australian Cody Crocker in a Subaru was 12th overall and third in the production class, which was won by New Zealander Hayden Paddon.

The penalty to Loeb means that Hirvonen now won last four events in succession.

Despite protests by local “environmental” groups that caused two stages of the rally to be cancelled, the event was considered a great first up success with large crowds of locals and visitors lining the route and bringing a festive atmosphere to the normally quiet rural backwater.