Citroën Total World Rally Team driver Sébastien Loeb continues to dominate Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, the opening round of the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship. The Frenchman won all but two of the day’s six stages and now holds an impressive lead over Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen. Subaru driver Chris Atkinson has moved into the final provisional podium position.

Today was the longest day of the event, covering two loops of three stages and 133 competitive kilometres. Dani Sordo (Citroën) claimed victory in the first stage, consolidating his second position in the overall leaderboard. However, two stages later the Spaniard was forced into retirement with an engine problem.

Loeb then dominated proceedings and was only beaten by Chris Atkinson in the longest stage of the day (SS13). Unlike his team-mate’s C4 WRC, Loeb’s didn’t miss a beat and he takes a comfortable two minute 10.6 second advantage into tomorrow’s closing five stages. Following Sordo’s retirement, Hirvonen climbed into second position and has enjoyed a trouble-free day, with the exception of a stall at the start of one stage. He has nearly a minute in hand to Atkinson, who continues to battle hard to maintain position ahead of François Duval (Ford Focus).

Petter Solberg (Subaru), Gigi Galli (Ford Focus) and Jean-Marie Cuoq hold fifth, sixth and seventh respectively, while Per-Gunnar Andersson has put in an impressive performance in the all-new Suzuki SX4. The Swede, who won the 2007 FIA Junior Rally Championship, was fifth fastest in SS11 and holds eighth position in the Japanese manufacturer’s world rally car. After losing time in the opening day, Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) powered up the leaderboard yesterday, but hydraulic problems left him using the manual gearshift and competing with only front-wheel drive this morning. This afternoon he retired with damaged front suspension.

Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo - Results after Day 3
 

1	Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	2 hr 50 min 38.8sec
2	Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 52 min 49.4sec
3	Chris Atkinson/Stéphane Prévot	Subaru Impreza WRC	2 hr 53 min 41.4sec
4	François Duval/Eddy Chevailler	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 54 min 01.5sec
5	Petter Solberg/Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	2 hr 54 min 50.6sec
6	Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini	Ford Focus RS WRC	2 hr 58 min 18.5sec
7	Jean-Marie Cuoq/Philippe Janvier	Peugeot 307 WRC	2 hr 58 min 58.5sec
8	Per-Gunnar Andersson/J Andersson	Suzuki SX4	3 hr 00 min 10.6sec

 
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