Loeb wins Monte under appeal

The 27-year-old Frenchman held a solid 28 second lead at the end of the second leg when, at a 12 minute re-fuelling halt before the cars entered Parc Ferme, the wheels of his Citroen Xsara were changed, which contravened the rules.

Why Citroen risked such a penalty while in a commanding position, and a 45 minute service halt awaited them before the third leg's first stage anyway, remains a mystery.

"We do not wish to make any comment on what is a terrible oversight," said team manager Michel Perin. "It is all the more stupid that it amounts to changing tyres."

If that wasn't bad enough, Citroen's hopes had already been compromised on the opening day when neither Philippe Bugalski nor Thomas Radstrom made it to the opening stage before their engines let go. That left the way clear of Loeb, who had blown his engine on the shakedown and was using a spare, to take centre stage.

After a steady start, Loeb took the rally by the scruff of the neck. He used all his knowledge of the local terrain to make the rest of this world class field look decidedly average. He blitzed them by a massive 18 seconds through the fourth stage, Sisteron, to grab the lead on the opening day which he maintained during day two.

Subaru's newboy Makinen took the fight to him on the final day, getting to within 18.6secs with two stages remaining. But the Finn then backed off after assurances from his team that confirmation of Loeb's penalty was a mere formality. Should that be true, Makinen becomes the world's most successful WRC driver of all time, with 24 event victories to his name.

While the winner will be decided in a courtroom in a few weeks time, the placings were decided in thrilling style on the stages. Carlos Sainz lived a charmed life, bouncing off the same wall in SS7 that put Subaru's Petter Solberg out of the reckoning, before roaring ahead of Ford team-mate Colin McRae and Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm by the end of Leg Two.

The Spaniard held third, but just failed by 1.6secs to get within the two minutes of Loeb that would give him second if the Frenchman is penalised.

McRae conquered a 10sec time penalty (for leaving a service area late), a broken seat and a misfiring engine to grab fourth from Gronholm on the penultimate stage, an amazing performance on an event he dislikes intensely. The recovering Solberg rounded out the top six, and he set a sequence of blistering fastest stage times.

Less enamoured with his lot was reigning World Champion Richard Burns. His much heralded switch to Peugeot began with an opening stage off that he admits he was lucky to recover from. He never looked comfortable with his 206 and trailed home in eighth.