As a round up the drivers for this year are as follows.
Citroen C4 WRC - Sebastien Loeb & Daniel Elena
BP Ford Focus WRC - Mikko Hirvonen & Jari-Matti Latvala
Subaru Impreza WRC - Petter Solberg & Chris Atkinson
Stobart VK Ford Focus WRC - Henning Solberg, Gigi Galli, Matthew Wilson & Francois Duval
Suzuki SX4 WRC - Toni Gardemeister & Per-Gunnar Andersson
Here goes!
The rally started with two evening stages on the Thursday, in which the two Citroen drivers took a stage win each.
Friday was a routine day for the Citroen drivers who looked to be carrying on their tarmac surface dominance from last year with Mikko Hirvonen trailing behind. Despite what looked to be a quick start to his first season in a works car, Jari-Matti Latvala suffered a puncture early on on Friday and with the new regulations not allowing cars to have run-flat mousse in the tyres, a manual change was necessary, unfortunately the electronic wheel nut tool was faulty meaning they had to break out the manual equivalent, all in all 4 minutes were lost and Latvala slipped out of the points paying positions. Suzuki got off to a decent start for their debut, but both suffered mechanical issues; fortunately nothing to put them out of the rally. Rautenbach slipped up on an icy patch and careered into a hut - the first one 2 big impacts for him on the Monte.
The day ended with Loeb and Sordo up front, Hirvonen in 3rd and Atkinson and Duval in 4th and 5th respectively, about to embark on a duel that would last the whole rally.
Day 3 saw Latvala suffer another blow after a big impact on the front left wheel, leaving him with a loss of steering. Duval and Atkinson battled for most of the day with Duval gaining a good chunk of time on the Aussie, until Atkinson put in a blistering time on the same stage he won in this event last season, beating even Loeb by over 10 seconds. Dani Sordo suffered an engine failure, which left him most unhappy. This shifted Hirvonen into 2nd place and Duval and Atkinson fighting for a podium position.
A special mention should go out to Frenchman Jean-Marie Cuoq who's local knowledge allowed him to keep his Peugeot 307 in the points for the majority of the weekend and landed him 7th place.
Gardemeister's Suzuki overheated and had to retire, however PG Andersson managed to wrap up an 8th place finish.
Gigi Galli was happy as ever this weekend and was pleased to finish in a respectable 6th spot, in what is to be his first full season in the WRC.
Petter Solberg had a very quiet rally, looking forward to the new Impreza later in the season and picked up 5th place to put Subaru 2nd in the manufacturers standings.
Despite several stage wins near the end, Duval had to settle for 4th place, with him and Atkinson setting an identical time on the final super special stage around the Monte Carlo Harbour. Atkinson gained his podium, proving himself a more than capbale driver on asphalt.
Hirvonen could do nothing but drive as quickly as possible to maintain his 2nd place, but was way off the pace of Loeb, finishing just over 2 and a half minutes behind the Frenchman.
Rautenbach overcooked a chicane on the super special stage and hit the barrier backwards.
Driver Standings:
1. Loeb - 10
2. Hirvonen - 8
3. Atkinson - 6
4. Duval - 5
5. P. Solberg - 4
6. Galli - 3
7. Cuoq - 2
8. Andersson - 1
Manufacturer Standings:
1. Citroen - 11
2. Subaru - 10
3. BP Ford - 8
4. Stobart VK Ford - 8
5. Suzuki - 2
Thanks for reading.