click above for more high-res action shots
Rally-racing superstar Sebastien Loeb drove into the history books this past Sunday in Monaco when he and co-driver Daniel Elena (a native of Monaco) took the checkered flag at the Monte Carlo Rally for a record fifth time. The Monaco stages kicked off the 2008 World Rally Championship, and Loeb is hoping that the victory at the season opener will be the first of many as he and Elena campaign for their fifth consecutive WRC title.
Although Dani Sordo, Loeb's team-mate at Citroen, put up an early fight, Sordo retired from second place with engine problems, leaving Loeb with an eventual two-and-a-half second lead over Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen. Acknowledging Loeb's repeated domination in Monte Carlo, Hirvonen was satisfied with his second-place finish.
This was the last time the Monte Carlo Rally counts towards the World Rally Championship, as next year the event joins the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The WRC picks up again in Sweden on February 8.
We've selected some of the finer action shots from the Monaco Rally and assembled them into a high-res gallery below.
[Source: Autosport]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jorge @ Jan 28th 2008 2:40PM
Cant wait for the WRC to be here in Mexico this year, is going to be from February 28 to March 2!!!
Last year it was so cool!!! Take a look at the video I took from last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7ZPEUtmHuY
Scott @ Jan 28th 2008 2:41PM
How about a Spoiler alert for those of us (read everybody in the us) that has to wait for the rally to be available for download somewhere.
nagmashot @ Jan 28th 2008 3:19PM
look at the WRC homepage..they offer live video feeds for the "I life in a Nascar TV country" Rally fans..
http://www.wrc.com/index.jsp
They showed the complete last Monte Carlo stage live there
adam @ Jan 28th 2008 2:54PM
I'm in the US, and I saw all 4 days of coverage by the end of Sunday night. ;)
http://racing-underground.com
And to the autoblog staff... how about a spoiler alert? At least cover a bit more of the rally than just Loeb's 5th Monte Carlo win. There's plenty to mention:
• Suzuki's SX4 debut
• Marcus Gronholm's replacement, Mikko hirvonen
• Chris Atkinson's 3rd place defense in the Super Stage
There's plenty more. Pretty narrow scope to just mention Loeb's fifth Monte Carlo win.
What's going on with Mitsubishi? Are they ever going to return to WRC?
nagmashot @ Jan 28th 2008 3:28PM
agree..
I wrote a notice 28hours ago that the first 2008 WRC Rally was finished...
The most successfull Rally driver of all time set a new record..no notice at Autoblog..
Suzuki had more or less a desaster at their first full WRC season race debute (one car was taken out of competition because of engine failure the other finished 11minutes behind the winner).. no notice at Autoblog
A hard fight at the final stage were a ford Focus driver was able to close a 20s gap to 1.1s vs a Subaru Imprezza.. no notice at Autoblog..
Dale Ernhard cookies are a more important topic as a worldchampionship race series writing motorsport history... a real shame..
adam @ Jan 28th 2008 3:38PM
I wouldn't say Suzuki's debut was a disaster. Most of the team left the race with a positive feeling. Considering that it's their first WRC with a brand new car, I'd say they did pretty well. There are still plenty of bugs to work out of the SX4 WRC, but fielding a brand new car that finished in the points (and don't forget, later in the race, the PG Andersson was laying down some GREAT times) with rookie WRC drivers is a good accomplishment and a great starting point for the rest of the season.
I was surprised to see Atkinson's and Duval's special stage times to be exactly even. How often does that happen?
(sorry if I mispelled names in this post...)
Tsunami Racer @ Jan 28th 2008 2:58PM
i wish we had wrc on television in the US :(
how can we have tour d' spandex bicycle racing but not world rally?
tankd0g @ Jan 28th 2008 3:16PM
WTF? I thought Monte Carlo was dropped this year, or is that 2009? I gotta start watching TV again I guess.
Rallyroo @ Jan 28th 2008 3:20PM
Loeb had a 2.5 MINUTE lead over Hirvonen, not 2.5 second lead as the author of the article wrote.
nardi @ Jan 28th 2008 3:46PM
With Marcus Gronholm retired there really isnt any competition to Leob this year. I'm sure he will win most of the events by a similar 2.5min, this may make the WRC a little predictable this year, but what are you going to do when you have a superstar like Loeb, certainly not add weight or restrictor plates etc. then I would stop taking an interest.
adam @ Jan 28th 2008 3:51PM
Don't the current WRC cars have restrictor plates plates fitted on the turbo inlets?
Playdrv4me @ Jan 28th 2008 3:54PM
Dammit! I thought Lisa upped her hotness even more by getting into racing...
Moving on!...
xspeedy @ Jan 28th 2008 4:05PM
WRC is awesome. I'm a US based fan and have been to two races so far. I made it to the 2005 Rallye Deutschland and the 2007 Rallye de France (Tour de Corse). I was able to meet Sebastien Loeb (big fans) and Marcus Gronholm at the French Rally.
We should start a US based fan club if there isn't one already.
Pete @ Jan 28th 2008 4:43PM
yeah, u guys need to put spoiler alerts in the title and results after the click thru. a brief intro would be nice on the main page.
competition w/in wrc is virtually non-existent. loeb will have no problem winning another championship. he's that good. however, it'd be nice for other drivers/manufacturers rival the loeb/citroen dynasty. it'd be good for the sport to see a different winner. variety is the spice of life...
hopefully, subaru will get there act together and get the '08-spec impreza wrc out into competition. it's supposedly much better than the outgoing car. we'll see in the second half of the season. what took them so long to prepare this car anyway???
FingerSled @ Jan 28th 2008 5:08PM
The only time I ever wrote a letter to a TV network was when SPEED(channel) stopped showing the WRC.
It was becoming a family tradition to watch SPEED(channel), all day, on January 1st because they would replay the entire WRC season and WRC is cool--and never boring!
nardi @ Jan 28th 2008 5:12PM
The restrictor plates are to limit HP and apply to all cars for the whole season, not just in the car that happens to be leading the championship or winning this week.
Throwback @ Jan 28th 2008 5:23PM
I miss seeing WRC on speed. Watching on-line does not do it for me. It's nice to be able to keep current but I want to see it on a big screen. Compared to F1 WRC is much more exciting, even the back markers have entertaining runs. I hope someone gives Loeb a good run this year, but I doubt it.
Arun @ Jan 28th 2008 5:55PM
Wish people would do their research before writing these articles. The Monte Carlo rally isn't being dropped by the WRC, the rounds are just on rotation every 2 years.
Monte Carlo will be the opening round of the 2010 season (21-24-Jan)
chris @ Jan 28th 2008 10:06PM
Is Monte Carlo going to do IRC one year and then WRC the next, or is it doing IRC every year also WRC every second year? As in IRC 2009, IRC and WRC 2010, IRC 2011, IRC and WRC 2012, etc.
Run @ Jan 28th 2008 9:32PM
Thank you for the report. News coverage on the WRC is sadly quite minimal in the US. So I usually watch some highlights of WRC. This year when I saw some highlights on DVD about Sebastian Loeb: http://dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=80975&ru=279 , I was sure that Loeb sold his soul to be so fast! Ya, Great !