Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb steered a safe course through the final four stages of this year’s Rallye Monte Carlo, round one of the FIA World Rally Championship, to clinch back-to-back wins on the rally. Loeb took the lead of the event on the opening day and was never headed as he opened an unassailable lead with fastest time on every one of the three stages which ran through leg two. With a cushion of one and a half minutes, Loeb was not about to risk anything as he attempted to become the first driver to win consecutive Monte Carlo rallies since Tommi Makinen won four times between 1999 and 2002. Markko Martin grabbed the runners-up spot in the rally after a fascinating duel through the final leg with his Ford team-mate Francois Duval. The Estonian was quicker than his fellow Focus driver on three of the day’s four stages to arrive back in Monaco with seven seconds in hand over the third-placed Belgian. The combined efforts of Martin and Duval also meant that Ford takes the lead in the manufacturers’ standings, taking 14 points from the opening round, four ahead of Citroen on ten and Peugeot on nine. Marcus Gronholm was the first Peugeot driver home, brining his 307WRC to fourth place on its FIA World Rally Championship debut. The Finn was backed up by Freddy Loix, who finished one place further back – benefiting from Petter Solberg’s accident on the penultimate stage.
Nicolas Bernardi won the opening round of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship in a Renault Clio, finishing comfortably ahead of Urmo Aava’s Suzuki Ignis.

Citroen Total
Technical: Sebastien Loeb’s Citroen Xsara WRC ran reliably through the final leg, while Carlos Sainz crashed his sister car on the ninth stage yesterday.
Sporting: Today was the first day that Loeb failed to score any fastest times as he guided his Xsara WRC to his sixth win in the FIA World Rally Championship. He finished the event 1m12.6s ahead of Markko Martin. The Frenchman hasn’t put a wheel wrong throughout the rally and having won the rally 12 months ago officially and having being fastest on the stages in 2002 (before dropping to second place after he was penalised for a tyre changing irregularity), he knew just what was required to bring the car home for a maximum ten points. 
Quotes: Sebastien Loeb said: “This was such a difficult rally in the conditions. Luckily today I was able to take things a little bit more steady and not risk so much. Always the most important thing on the Monte Carlo Rally is not to make a mistake and we managed that. I was able to wait until I was more confident in the conditions and then push hard and move ahead of Marcus. It’s a great boost to motivation at the start of the season to have won this rally.”
Guy Frequelin said: “For the drivers championship this was the perfect result for Sebastien. Carlos crashing yesterday wasn’t quite so good for the manufacturers, but okay that’s life. Sebastien drove a very controlled event -  he got really pumped up towards the end of the first day and then in the fog on leg two. He was very good.”

Ford Motor Company
Technical: Both Ford Focus RS WRC2003s ran without any technical problems on the third and final leg of the Rallye Monte Carlo.
Sporting: Markko Martin closed to just 3.6 seconds of Francois Duval’s second place on the first run over Col de Turini this morning. The Estonian had taken a softer compound of Michelin for the opening loop and found more grip on the five-kilometre stretch of icy asphalt on the summit of the col. His efforts to wrest the runners-up spot from the Belgian were helped when Duval spun and stalled at a hairpin 20 kilometres into the test. Duval made up for his loss on the first stage by beating Martin on the next one. Duval went into the final two stages with a 6.7-second advantage, but was unable to stop Martin coming past. He moved ahead on the penultimate stage and stayed there until the finish. Some consolation for Duval was the Inmarsat Star of the Rally award. Ford moved into the lead of the manufacturers’ championship for the first time since the 2001 Tour de Corse.
Quotes: Markko Martin said: “The soft tyres were good for the first one, but then they went off a bit on the next one. We thought it was going to be wetter than it was – to be honest it was almost bone dry apart from the ice. This has been a great battle, but I’m quite glad that it’s over now. This is my best result in Monte Carlo and it’s a really good one for the team. ”
Francois Duval said: “I stalled the car twice today which didn’t help me, but beating Markko was going to be hard after his time on the first run over the Turini. It would have been great to be second, but third is a good result for me. I am happy, it’s also very good for the whole team.”
Malcolm Wilson said: “This is a great result for Ford. It’s the first time that we have led the championship after Monte Carlo since I took over Ford’s participation in the series. It hasn’t been an easy time for Ford recently, so this is just the sort of news we need to give the whole team a big lift.”
Marlboro Peugeot Total
Technical: Marcus Gronholm’s Peugeot 307 WRC ran reliably through the final day, while Freddy Loix’s car suffered a gearbox selection fault after the final stage.
Sporting: Gronholm came through leg three unscathed to pick up five points for fourth place and his best ever result on the opening round of the championship. On instruction from the team, Freddy Loix took a studded ice tyre for the first loop of stages this morning when a slick would have been a better choice. Other than that the Belgian’s progress through the final day’s four stages was without incident until the gearbox became stuck in fourth gear after the 15th and final test.
Quotes: Marcus Gronholm said: “This is the best result in Monte Carlo for both me and the team, but at the same time it could still have been a little better. I think we could have been second on this rally, but I don’t think it would have been possible to beat Sebastien.”
Freddy Loix said: “The tyres were wrong this morning, but at the same time it was the safe choice. I don’t want to make any mistakes on this event, so in some ways it wasn’t such a bad thing that we had the ice tyre. I am really happy to make the finish for Peugeot, now we’re looking ahead to Sweden, which is an event I really enjoy and have gone well on in the past.”
Jean-Pierre Nicolas said: “It is very good for the team to get both cars to the finish on the first rally for the 307WRC. Apart from the gearbox trouble, the cars have been reliable and on the pace. Marcus might have finished fourth, but if he hadn’t slipped off the road yesterday then he could very easily have been second. We are also happy with what Freddy did today – he drove as we instructed him to.”

555 Subaru World Rally Team
Technical: Petter Solberg’s Subaru Impreza WRC2003 suffered a damaged driveshaft and suspension on the penultimate stage of the day after he collided with a wall. Mikko Hirvonen crashed on SS9 yesterday, damaging the steering on his car.
Sporting: Solberg posted his first fastest time of this year’s Rallye Monte Carlo on SS13, but with a big gap to Marcus Gronholm ahead and Freddy Loix behind, the reigning world champion underlined his intention to reach the finish of the rally. His plans went slightly awry on the rally’s penultimate test when he went off the road and dropped four minutes getting out of the Sospel-Turini-La Bollene test with damaged transmission. He and co-driver Phil Mills did what they could after the stage, but then dropped a further three minutes in the final test. This cost them two places on the leaderboard as they slipped from fifth to seventh. 
Quotes: Petter Solberg said: “This morning I took a new tyre with a harder compound. It wasn’t so good where there was ice for about six kilometres of the first stage, but on the second stage it was very good. The fastest time we set showed that it was the right decision to use the tyre. On stage 14 we hit a patch of snow and went straight on into a small wall. It’s a real shame because we weren’t risking anything when we were driving, but at least we didn’t drop out of the points completely. We leave here with two points, that’s two more than last year and 15 more rallies to come.”
David Lapworth said: ”I’m very pleased with Mikko’s progress. I am disappointed for him – not with him. He made a small mistake, as did Petter on the final day. You have to realise that in all drivers, no matter how much experience they have, accidents are going to happen. We couldn’t find any fault with Mikko’s approach to the event and Petter’s rally was going to plan we had when he was caught out.”

Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sport
Technical: Gilles Panizzi’s Lancer WRC suffered a problem with the front shock absorbers on the first two stages of the day, while Gigi Galli crashed out of the event on the opening day.
Sporting: Panizzi continued to make small changes to his car throughout the final leg, but eventually brought the car home for sixth place on its debut. He struggled with a handling problem early on this morning – caused by the shock absorber trouble. With new parts fitted for the second run over those stages, Panizzi posted fifth quickest time on each test and was delighted to bring his car home in the top six.
Quotes: Gilles Panizzi said: “I have to admit that I am surprised to see the finish. We had many problems with the car in testing before the rally, we really didn’t get too many kilometres done. Okay here we have had some small problems but each time the team has found the solution. This is fantastic for all of us, but especially the boys who have worked so hard to get the car built in time for the event.”
Sven Quandt said: “I am more than pleased with what we have done here. Before this rally people said that they wouldn’t be seeing us on Sunday, well we are here and we are in the points. What is also very good news for us is that nothing has broken completely on the car, nothing has made the car immobile. Gilles has done a very good job for us, as did Gigi on the first day – it’s just a shame that his run didn’t last a little bit longer.”

Other entries
Frenchman Nicolas Bernardi, with experienced co/driver Denis Giraudet dominated the final leg of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship opener in his Renault Clio. He started the day with a 24-second advantage over Urmo Aava, but finished it with four minutes in hand over the Suzuki driver. “This is very emotional for me,” said Bernardi. “It was this rally that made me love rallying and now I’ve won the JWRC category in it. Fantastic.” Britain’s Kris Meeke (Opel Corsa) made up an amazing four and a half minutes on Alessandro Broccoli to grab third place right at the finish.
Swiss Olivier Burri was first of the non-works drivers grabbing the last one point in his Subaru.