Saturday's leg of Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo was the final day of proper rally stages. The rally will continue for another day in the Principality with the Monaco Circuit superspecial as the only stage to be run on Sunday.
For the third day, the Citroën Total World Rally Team drivers completed the leg holding first and second in the overall classifications. Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo began the rally holding the top two positions respectively and ended Saturday's stages in the same position which they began the rally two days prior.
Citroën's release of the C4 WRC was extremely impressive for the team and though both Citroën drivers relaxed on Saturday's stages, their dominance on tarmac was firmly felt throughout the stages.
Marcus Grönholm found himself in an unfamiliar position, and one that his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen was all too familiar with in 2006, 'no-man's land'. Grönholm was unable to catch the Citroëns ahead of him but he was too far ahead for the remainder of the FIA World Rally Championship field behind him to catch-up. The Finn was not happy with his pace, but as the rally progressed, he seemed to realize that he would be unable to match the C4 WRC under the conditions of the weekend.
Mikko Hirvonen
Fourth overall at the end of the leg was Mikko Hirvonen, who may have had the most inspiring drive of any of the WRC competitors during the day. Hirvonen and Chris Atkinson, who completed the leg fifth overall, had a heated battle throughout the day's six stages, but it was the young Finn who pulled ahead and brought fourth overall to the rally's final proper day, though by only 0.8 seconds.
Atkinson finished the day with two stage victories, however - Subaru's first tarmac stage win since Monte Carlo last year.
Atkinson's team-mate, Petter Solberg, completed the leg sixth overall. Solberg was optimistic about both his Impreza WRC and the BF Goodrich tyres his team ran through the weekend. Solberg did complain of grip issues early in the event but found a comfortable pace which he held until the day ended.
Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson
Toni Gardemeister had a hard-fought battle with Solberg during the rally's third leg, but the Finn was unable to move beyond the former champion to claim sixth position. Gardemeister finished Monte Carlo third last year and had hoped for a higher position on the leaderboard this weekend. A solid, trouble-free drive saw him finish Saturday's stages with an impressive performance to take seventh overall into Sunday.
Jan Kopecky, driving the only Skoda Fabia WRC in this weekend's event, finished the third leg eighth overall. Kopecky has driven a very clean rally and though he was in a heated battle with Jari-Matti Latvala during the final two stages of the leg, he was aided with holding that position after Latvala suffered a minor, but costly off on the rally's final stage. Latvala dropped two places on the leaderboard and is effectively out of the hunt for a point-finish.
Jan Kopecky
Though many of the positions carried into the rally's final stage will not change after the Monaco Circuit superspecial, the one battle that will be decided Sunday is the one between Atkinson and Hirvonen. Separated by less than a second, the two drivers will be keen to claim that position for their teams and themselves.
-WRC.com
The Mitsubishi Motors Motorsports Privateer squad:
Toni Gardemeister/Juha Honkanen
Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo
-photos: MMSP
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