Rallye Portugal took place this weekend. You may be able to guess how it turned out from our header graphic here as well.

It’s only the fourth event of the 2009 WRC season, but Sebastian Loeb has made the season a clean sweep thus far in his Citroen C4. The podium for this event was rounded out with Mikko Hirvonen in his Mk2 Ford Focus in second and Dani Sordo in his Citroen C4 in third. Petter Solberg placed fourth for his eponymous team, and brother Henning placed fifth for Stobart.

What of the return of Marcus Gronholm and his Prodrive Subaru Impreza WRC-2008? On the first day of the rally, he managed to race up in second…but an accident that destroyed the engine on day two led him to an unfortunate retirement. Still, this has led Prodrive to consider further ’09 WRC events. Will they involve Gronholm? No one has said for sure, but greater competition can only be a good thing.

In other news, if you want your kid to have a future in worldwide motorsport, naming him “Sebastian” or possibly “Sebastien” apparently helps…