The 2008 FIA World Rally Championship got underway yesterday with the opening day of competition in the famous Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, round one of the 15-event series. Citroën’s Dani Sordo took the initial lead, but it was reigning World Champion Sébastien Loeb who took the overnight honours after two tricky night stages in the Vercors mountains.
Today, during the second of four days, the crews headed into the Ardèche mountains, south-west of Valence, for two identical loops of three stages covering 117 competitive kilometres. Loeb once again set the pace and the Citroën C4 driver claimed two stage wins before the crews returned to Valence for the mid-day service. This afternoon, over drier roads, the Frenchman again dominated, extending his lead to 56.6 seconds after a trouble-free run.
Team-mate Sordo took a stage win this morning, but a broken differential slowed the Spaniard this afternoon. Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen therefore closed the gap, and is a further 26.2 seconds adrift in third position in the lead Ford Focus. Chris Atkinson started the day in fourth position, after a few minor ‘offs’ in last night’s stages, and the Australian Subaru driver has been battling hard with fifth-placed François Duval (Ford Focus), who is lacking good pace notes having not contested the event last year. He has also had problems with understeer today, but overnights just 14 seconds adrift of Atkinson.
Petter Solberg’s Subaru was down on power this afternoon but he remains in striking distance of fifth position. Italian Gigi Galli, in his debut outing with the Stobart team, has maintained a sensible pace as he continues to learn the car, but was forced to drive the final stage without power steering. Frenchman Jean-Marie Cuoq rounds off the top eight in a Peugeot 307 WRC.
Jari-Matti Latvala, in his debut outing with Ford, had a disappointing start when he was forced to stop and change a wheel in last night’s first stage. He lost over four minutes but has climbed from 33rd to 9th.
Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo - Results after Day 2
| 1 | Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena | Citroën C4 WRC | 1 hr 36 min 44.9sec |
| 2 | Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti | Citroën C4 WRC | 1 hr 37 min 41.5sec |
| 3 | Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen | Ford Focus RS WRC | 1 hr 38 min 07.7sec |
| 4 | Chris Atkinson/Stéphane Prévot | Subaru Impreza WRC | 1 hr 39 min 13.5sec |
| 5 | François Duval/Eddy Chevailler | Ford Focus RS WRC | 1 hr 39 min 27.5sec |
| 6 | Petter Solberg/Phil Mills | Subaru Impreza WRC | 1 hr 39 min 54.5sec |
| 7 | Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini | Ford Focus RS WRC | 1 hr 42 min 06.0sec |
| 8 | Jean-Marie Cuoq/Philippe Janvier | Peugeot 307 WRC | 1 hr 42 min 12.8sec |
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