The Frenchman, driving a Citroen for the Kronos team, beat Ford's Marcus Gronholm by 5.6 seconds after 27 stages on the loose gravel roads around Obihiro in the northern island of Hokkaido.

Loeb, who has 102 points and now leads the Finn by 33 points with five rounds of the championship remaining and a third title in a row all but won, already held the records for most wins in a single season (10) and most in a row (six).

He had shared the record of 26 wins with retired Spaniard Carlos Sainz.

However, the 32-year-old Loeb has taken less than four years to rack up his record tally of wins since his first in Germany in 2002 and can be expected to take many more as the sport's dominant driver.

"Oh I don't know, hopefully," the 'Michael Schumacher of rallying' told reporters when asked whether he was now the best driver in the history of the championship.

Ford's Mikko Hirvonen, Gronholm's teammate and compatriot, finished the rally in third place.

He also won the final super-special, the only driver other than Loeb and Gronholm to win stages in Japan this year.

Australian Chris Atkinson finished fourth for Subaru, which struggled with brake problems in its home event, with Austrian Manfred Stohl fifth in a Peugeot.

Japan's Toshi Arai was sixth in a Subaru with Loeb's Spanish teammate Dani Sordo seventh and 2004 winner Petter Solberg eighth for Subaru.

Gronholm, last year's winner and himself a double champion, won 15 of the stages but paid the price for two big mistakes on Saturday morning that cost him more than 30 seconds and the lead. Despite that, he pushed hard yesterday in the closest battle he and Loeb have had all year.

"Today he was really pushing hard and in my situation it was hard to know what I had to do, to take further risks or keep the car on the road," the Autosport Website quoted Loeb, who clocked a time of 3 hours, 22 minutes, 20.4 seconds, as saying afterwards.

"To finish with just five seconds lead...incredible."

The win was Loeb's seventh of the season to Gronholm's four.

Japan, which made its championship debut in 2004, was one of just three rallies that he had yet to win.

Agencies