Loeb and Peugeot 208 win Pikes Peak

Sébastien Loeb has shattered the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record with a time of 8m13.878s driving a Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak, writes Trish Whelan.

The Frenchman negotiated the 20 kilometres and 156 corners of the mountain at an average speed of 145km/h which blitzed the previous best of 9m46.164s set by Rhys Millen last year.

"For me, this was the race of the year," Loeb said at the finish, 4300 metres high in the Rocky Mountains.

Loeb, the nine-time world rally champion, started first of the unlimited class cars, unleashing his 875bhp car onto the mountain after all the motorcycle competitors had passed through. Delays were caused by clouds closing in at the top of the mountain.

New Zealander Rhys Millen came second in his all-new Hyundai RMR PM580-T, 49 seconds behind Loeb.

For Loeb and Peugeot Sport, it was the end to a remarkable one-shot adventure that had taken them from early tests of the car at Mont Ventoux in France to the untrammelled mountains of Colorado; officially America's highest state. Pikes Peak is a legend; the second-oldest car race in America after the Indy 500.