Day 2am: Martin retakes lead
Markko Martin regained the lead of the Rallye de France on Corsica from Ford team-mate Francois Duval as he dominated the two morning stages of the second leg

The Estonian, who lost his lead to Duval yesterday afternoon, was a full 20s faster than anyone on the damp 36.2km Vico 1 stage. He not only erased Duval's advantage but established a 5s cushion of his own. He then blasted through SS6 to increase that lead to 17s as the field rolled into the midday service.
Duval is now the only man realistically in touch with Martin and confirmed it by going second quickest on both the morning stages as the Focus continues to be the class of the field on the Corsican asphalt.
World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Loeb, who will clinch the title if the order remains the same, is 57.3s behind Martin in third. The Frenchman admitted a desire to win his home event before it began, but now appears to be heeding the advice of caution from his fellow Citroen team members who want Loeb to put his championship ambitions first.
Loeb's team-mate remains Carlos Sainz fourth overall ahead of Peugeot 307 driver Marcus Gronholm. The pair failed to register times on SS5 after they stopped at the scene of Cedric Robert's accident. They were later granted nominal times based on their performance so far in the rally.
Reigning world champion and title challenger Petter Solberg is down in sixth and struggling. The Norweigen Subaru star is nearly a minute and a half behind Gronholm and is slipping back.
Former F1 driver Stephane Sarrazin, as he did in Germany, is impressing on the asphalt surface. The French Subaru driver, much like fellow privateer Alexandre Bengue in a Peugeot 206, is showing a clean pair of heels to the rest of the works stars including factory Subaru driver Mikko Hirvonen who languishes in 12th.
Peugeot's Freddy Loix is ninth as he continues to battle away with Skoda drivers Toni Gardemeister and Armin Schwarz.
Latest news
Why Monte Carlo success could spark another past master’s WRC revival
Some 39 years on from his Monte Carlo Rally debut, World Rally Championship legend Francois Delecour continues to pick up silverware. Proving that age is purely a number, the 60-year-old's desire to compete against the WRC’s latest young talents could be the start of a new chapter in the Frenchman’s storied career
Haas: No plans to change F1 team model despite nearing budget cap
Gunther Steiner says there is no plan for Haas to change the model of its Formula 1 team despite nearing the budget cap with a new title sponsor.
Supercars team reveals coin toss chassis allocation
Supercars squad Team 18 used a combination of a coin toss and a ping pong ball lottery to allocate its new chassis to drivers Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom.
HPD boss "amazed" by GTP reliability on debut at Daytona 24 Hours
The boss of Honda Performance Developments has expressed his amazement at the high levels of reliability demonstrated by the all-new GTP prototypes in last weekend's Daytona 24 Hours.
Why Monte Carlo success could spark another past master’s WRC revival
Some 39 years on from his Monte Carlo Rally debut, World Rally Championship legend Francois Delecour continues to pick up silverware. Proving that age is purely a number, the 60-year-old's desire to compete against the WRC’s latest young talents could be the start of a new chapter in the Frenchman’s storied career
How fired-up Ogier became the WRC's ultimate Monte master
He may only be contesting a part-time campaign in the World Rally Championship these days, but Sebastien Ogier underlined that he's lost none of his speed in the 2023 season opener. Storming to yet another victory on the Monte Carlo Rally, the eight-time world champion rewrote the history books again as Toyota served notice of its intentions with a crushing 1-2
How Lancia pulled off its famous Monte Carlo giantkilling
Audi should have been invincible in the snowy conditions that typically greeted the World Rally Championship paddock in Monte Carlo. But unexpectedly warm weather for the 1983 season opener, combined with some left-field thinking from the Lancia crew turned the tables. Forty years on, team boss Cesare Fiorio reflects on a smash and grab
Why M-Sport has pinned all its efforts on a WRC reunion
M-Sport had a disastrous 2022 with its Rally1 Ford Pumas following Sebastien Loeb’s first-time-out win on the Monte. But now things are looking up with 2019 world champion Ott Tanak leading its attack, and the Cumbrian operation has optimism that it can challenge for a first title since Sebastien Ogier's departure at the end of 2018
The contenders seeking to take Rovanpera's WRC crown
As Kalle Rovanpera begins his World Rally Championship title defence in Monte Carlo, the Finn knows he has a target on his back. But who is best placed to knock the Toyota ace off his perch?
Why Rovanpera is anticipating a fight to defend his WRC title
Question: what could be harder than becoming the youngest-ever World Rally champion? Answer: becoming the youngest-ever two-time World Rally champion. That's quite the challenge facing Toyota's Kalle Rovanpera in 2022, particularly against rejuvenated opposition in the second year of the WRC's hybrid regulations
From F1 to WRC: Why Hyundai's new boss could be an inspired signing
OPINION: New Hyundai WRC team boss Cyril Abiteboul admits he’s got a lot to learn as he leads the marque's efforts to dethrone Toyota. But could his Formula 1 experience and evident strengths mean he turns out to be an inspired choice?
The ultimate rally car project the WRC is glad COVID killed
Toyota was unstoppable in the 2021 World Rally Championship, with an excellent 75% strike rate from 12 rallies. But in a scary proposition for its rivals, the Japanese marque had built a car for the final year of the previous regulations set which it believes was much faster and could feasibly have crushed the opposition completely. Here the story of its mothballed world-beater
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.