Hanninen dominated the first part of Rally Monte Carlo, until a puncture forced him to gave Ogier the lead after the Thursday stages. Ogier kept calm and went on to retain that lead to the very end, while Freddy Loix benefited from Sarrazin's puncture in the last day of the rally to finish the event in 2nd place.
Sarrazin could have left Monte Carlo with at least a second place under his belt, but a driving mistake on Thursday, followed by a puncture in the last day of the rally left him fighting for 3rd place with Skoda's Jan Kopecky. HE eventually retained the last step of the podium, after a dominant performances in rally's final two night stages.
“It's very, very good - a perfect feeling. I drove very carefully and now it's finished. I think I had a good strategy this weekend, because I also drove carefully and I made no mistakes. All the others wanted to push a lot and did a lot of mistakes and went off,” said Ogier, who will be making his debut with Citroen Junior Team in the WRC next weekend, in Ireland.
“I think Sebastien was the most consistent one - no mistakes and clean driving. We're really driving for the championship, and I can only lose in that situation,” admitted Loix, content with his 2nd place in Monte Carlo.
Perhaps the most unfortunate driver this weekend was Skoda's Juho Hanninen. He was very dominant in the first part of the rally but slipped into 3rd place following a puncture on Thursday. However, the Finnish driver tried to make up for the lost time and crashed out of the rally in the last day.
Here are the complete standings of the IRC event in Monte Carlo:
1. Sebastien Ogier (Peugeot) 4h40:45.7
2. Freddy Loix (Peugeot) + 1:43.6
3. Stephane Sarrazin ( Peugeot) + 2:21.6
4. Jan Kopecky (Skoda) + 3:17.3
5. Giandomenico Basso (Abarth) + 4:28.0
6. Anton Alen (Abarth) + 10:49.7
7. Frederic Romeyer (Mitsubishi) + 20:30.3
8. Olivier Burri (Abarth) + 21:23.0
9. Luca Betti (Renault) + 24:04.8
10. Patrick Artru ( Mitsubishi) + 25:50.7
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