In the end, it was easy, again. Sebastien Loeb has won his third consecutive Rallye Monte Carlo. Loeb went into Sunday with a two minute lead over Marcus Gronholm, but any chance of challenge from Gronholm disappeared during the Col du Turini stage. Both Gronholm and Petter Solberg crashed during the stage thanks to snow piled on the road by spectators (a common occurence on the Col during dry road conditions. Both cars lost a wheel during their offs, but only Gronholm managed to limp back to service with three wheels on his 307. Between time lost thanks to the crash and an additional five minute penalty for arriving at the service park late, Gronholm lost his spot on the podium, but still managed to finish in the points. Solberg was not as fortunate and saw his best finish at the Monte slip away.

Thanks to that mishap, Ford’s Toni Gardemeister took second place (his best result ever) and Mitsubishi’s Gilles Panizzi took third. Thanks to Harri Rovanpera clawing back into the points (remember, the Finn was Peugeot’s gravel expert for three years and had not rallied on tarmac in two), Mitsubishi saw their best points haul since Tommi Makinen led the team in 2001. Markko Martin slipped into fourth place in his first event for Peugeot, despite finishing over five minutes behind Loeb. Manfred Stohl was the only privateer to slip into the points, and Ford’s Roman Kresta rounded out the points for a decent start to the Blue Oval campaign.

The only team that walked away from Monte Carlo empty handed was Subaru. Both Solberg and Stephane Sarrazin retired, and Solberg’s off came at a time when he was challenging Gardemeister for second place and setting scratch times in the process. Skoda has a less than satisfying rally as well, with Armin Schwarz retiring and Alex Bengue finishing just outside the points.

Posted on 23 January 2005