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In terms of wins, in 2008 Loeb was in a league of his own. Surpassing his own earlier record of ten wins in a single season (despite having one less round to accomplish that), Sebastien won three out of four events - an astonishing performance.
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Even though Hirvonen lost the championship race to Loeb's superior winning-rate, Mikko was able to finish all of the season's rallies and be everytime on points scoring position every time. Unfortunately for him, he was less often on podium than Sebastien, who failed to take a medal only twice - on both occasions due to a retirement.
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In unreliability department Suzuki and Ford were in a class of their own. Suzuki's cars retired more often than all the other works team cars put together - though this is perfectly understandable for a new car. At the other end of the spectrum Ford their car only once.
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On stage wins Loeb has a clear lead as he won over twice as many stages as next fastest rival. Interestingly, in Ford-team Latvala won more stages than his more experienced team-mate Hirvonen (52 to 45). In rally leader statistics Loeb is even more dominating as he led for over 53% worth of stages during the year. Interestingly, that's substantially less than his win-rate, proving the effect of road position rules and subsequent tactical games.
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Finland was again fastest event despite slight reduction in average speed and Turkey, which returned to series, was slowest. Great Britain suffered from demanding conditions, which saw route cut to shortest of the year and second highest attrition ratio. Longest stage of the season was held in new event of Jordan, which had the only stage over 40 kilometers this season.
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Mitsubishi retained the honor of being the most numerous car on entry list. Italians were the most numerous nationality, whereas drivers from United Kingdom suffered biggest drop in numbers (down from being clearly biggest group in 2007 to just fourth this year).
Overall, number of entries during the year was well over ten percent lower than in 2007. This was partly due to smaller calendar (by one event) but mainly because of the financial turmoil around the world.
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