Full Story (http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNewsDetail/0,,10111~617447,00.html) from wrc.com (http://www.wrc.com)

Reigning champion Sebastien Loeb drove a masterful Rally Automobile Monte Carlo on this weekend's 2005 season-opener, conquering tricky conditions that caught out many of his equally experienced rivals to take a third straight win in probably the World Rally Championship's trickiest event and give his title defence a real kickstart in the process.

The Citroen ace led the rally from start to finish, building up a solid lead while his rivals seemed to come a cropper in the difficult dry, wet and icy conditions. "This was the perfect rally for us," he said. "Very much like last year. It was a very tricky event - lots of drivers made mistakes, but fortunately we didn't. It's very motivating to start the year with 10 points." The unfortunate retirement of team-mate Francois Duval on Saturday, however, means the Citroen team only shares the lead of the manufacturers' race with Ford, with Mitsubishi and Peugeot on equal second with nine points each.

New Ford signing Toni Gardemeister scored his best career finish on his debut for the team with an impressively measured drive that marked him out as one of the true stars of the rally and a definite name to watch for the rest of the season. Equally impressive in third was Mitsubishi asphalt ace Gilles Panizzi, scoring his best ever result on his home rally and giving the Japanese team a real boost with its first podium in several years on its full-time WRC comeback after a part-season of troubled development work in 2004.

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Markko Martin had a mixed debut for Peugeot, finishing fourth after struggling for confidence for much of the event. It was a very relieved Marcus Gronholm who finished behind his Estonian team-mate in fifth, however. The double world champion was lucky to still be in the event for the final afternoon after he crashed out on snow thrown onto the stage by spectators on the Col du Turini section on the final test of the morning. He three-wheeled back to service, where the Peugeot mechanics performed miracles to repair his car.

There was no such luck for 2003 champion Petter Solberg, though. The Norwegian crashed his Subaru out at the same spot, suffering terminal damage. He joined team-mate Stephane Sarrazin - who was forced out of the competitive running of the rally on Saturday - in missing the potential of a points finish on what proved, as ever, to be an event of attrition. Manfred Stohl made the top six in his privateer Citroen, ahead of Mitsubishi's Harri Rovanpera - the gravel ace struggling on asphalt.

Ford rookie Roman Kresta made the drivers' points and manufacturers' points, despite not completing last night's final road section after crashing out after the final flying finish. He was able to resume under the new rules, which award a five-minute penalty for every stage and road section of the rally that was missed. Skoda's Alex Bengue secured the final manufacturers' point with ninth overall - despite crashing like Kresta on the final stage - to make up for the disappointment of Armin Schwarz's retirement on Saturday.

Citroen C2 driver Kris Meeke secured victory for himself in the Junior WRC class and a first win for the car in the Super 1600 class, finishing ahead of Suzuki Ignis driver Kosti Katajamaki. Lead Suzuki drivers Per-Gunnar Andersson and Guy Wilks both crashed out on last night's final stage, but were able to score points in the class after rejoining.