Loeb takes control

Sebastien Loeb seized control of the Monte Carlo Rally on the first day of the new season.

The world champion is bidding for a third consecutive win in the principality and showed exactly why he was the pre-rally favourite over the first three stages today.

Loeb, who drives for Citroen, won today’s first stage of the season by over 11 seconds from new team-mate Francois Duval to continue his form from 2004.

He was pegged back slightly on stage two when Marcus Gronholm took his Peugeot to the fastest time, narrowly beating Duval to that honour.

Loeb started stage three with a 10.5secs advantage over Duval but more than doubled it with his second fastest time of the rally, although his Citroen team-mate did cling on to take his third straight runners-up spot.

Loeb now leads the rally by 22.5secs from Duval and confessed he was going flat-out.

“Everything is going exactly as I expected,” he said. “Francois is very strong and I’m pleased to be in front of him.

“Me being the champion is now history, and I’m pushing as hard as ever. I don’t know if I will still be leading tonight, though.”

Gronholm is well placed in third overall after three stages but his new team-mate Markko Martin has slipped to fifth on his Peugeot debut, behind Ford’s Toni Gardemeister.

Former world champion Petter Solberg is sixth with Mitsubishi’s Gilles Panizzi seventh and Peugeot driver Didier Auriol eighth.

In the junior world championship, Kris Meeke is running third in his Citroen, just over 30 seconds behind leader Per-Gunnar Andersson. Guy Wilks is fourth for Suzuki.