SS1: The lottery begins…
With the early seeds acting as snow ploughs, the first stage of the Monte Carlo Rally, reinforced the view that the event will be a lottery. Toni Gardemeister, starting 16th in his Peugeot, was fastest, with Swiss driver Olivier Burri a sensational third in his Toyota Corolla
Didier Auriol started ninth and took a brilliant second, given the conditions, but it was the later runners dominating the top of the timesheets: Pierro Liatti put his Hyundai fourth from a 14th starting slot, with Armin Schwarz's Skoda in fifth from 11th. In contrast, Colin McRae was a lowly 15th, with Richard Burns way down in 25th.
Gravel crews reported approximately 60% snow cover on the 22.89kms, but the first cars swept a line in the slush for the later runners. With similar conditions expecetd on the remainder of this morning's stages, expect more surprise results.
1 Toni Gardemeister (Peugeot) 20m48.9s
2 Didier Auriol (Peugeot) 20m55.8s
3 Olivier Burri (Toyota) 21m03.5s
4 Piero Liatti (Hyundai) 21m05.2s
5 Armin Schwarz (Skoda) 21m06.1s
6 Petter Solberg (Subaru) 21m07.9s
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