22 - 25 January, the 76th edition of Rallye Monte Carlo

http://www.acm.mc/rallye/graph/petite_plaque_2004_detouree.gif

The ceremony is tomorrow, and the season starts properly in 2 days.


The opening round of the FIA World Rally Championship, the 72nd Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, will be held from 22nd to 25th January 2004.
On the basis of an outline identical to that of 2003, a few changes have been made to the route and the Special Stages in the first and second Legs.

The starting ceremony is planned for Thursday 22nd January from 6 pm, at the Place du Casino, after the traditional photo shoot of drivers and co-drivers participating in the World Championship, and the press conference.

On Friday, 23rd January, the first leg will be run around the Tallard aerodrome, where the Service Park will be located. The specials will be run on the roads of the Hautes-Alpes and Alpes de Haute Provence departments. The start for the first stage will be at Selonnet, with the ascent over the Col des Garcinets and arrival at Breziers (S.S 1 and 3).
After a short liaison to ensure a brisk pace for the trial, competitors will continue with Piegut-Urtis (SS 2 and 4), which was already run in 2000.
In the afternoon, the western department will be hosting the competitors during stages which have contributed to the renown of the Rally: Laborel-L´Aubergerie and Rosans-L´Epine. That day´s total will be 585 Km and six stages representing just over143 Km of specials.
Arrival in the Principality on the same evening at the Port where the Service Park will be set up for the following two legs.

Saturday, 24th January: back to the roads of Alpes Maritimes and the Nice hinterland with a new stage: Lantosque-Col de Braus via Luceram, the Saint Roch, Orme and Ablé passes, totalling 35 Km. Next on the menu is twice Tourette du Château-Saint Antonin followed by Sigale-Col de Bleine, i.e. 550 Km for the day including 141 Km of specials.

On Sunday, 25th January, same final loop as last year, namely Sospel-Col du Turini-La Bollène-Vésubie (SS 12 and 14) and Lantosque-Luceram (SS 13 and 15). A total of 269 Km including 104 Km in specials.
The arrival of the first car is foreseen on the port from 14h30. After a brief assistance - Prize Giving Ceremony - Place of the Princely Palace to count 15h30.


The entry list (works teams):

1 M 555 Subaru World Rally Team (GB ) SOLBERG Petter (NOR)
MILLS Philip (GB) SUBARU
Impreza WRC 2003 A

2 M 555 Subaru World Rally Team (GB ) HIRVONEN Mikko (FIN)
LEHTINEN Jarmo (FIN) SUBARU
Impreza WRC 2003 A

3 M CITROEN TOTAL (F) LOEB Sébastien (F)
ELENA Daniel (MC) CITROEN
Xsara WRC A

4 M CITROEN TOTAL (F) SAINZ Carlos (E)
MARTI Marc (E) CITROEN
Xsara WRC A

5 M MARLBORO PEUGEOT TOTAL (F) GRONHOLM Marcus (FIN)
RAUTIAINEN Timo (FIN) PEUGEOT
307 WRC A

6 M MARLBORO PEUGEOT TOTAL (F) LOIX Freddy (B)
SMEETS Sven (B) PEUGEOT
307 WRC A

7 M FORD MOTOR Co Ltd (GB) MARTIN Markko (EE)
PARK Michael (GB) FORD
Focus RS WRC 03 A

8 M FORD MOTOR Co Ltd (GB) DUVAL François (B)
PREVOT Stéphane (B) FORD
Focus RS WRC 03 A

9 M MITSUBISHI MOTORS MOTOR SPORTS (GB) PANIZZI Gilles (MC)
PANIZZI Hervé (MC) MITSUBISHI
Lancer WRC04 A

10 M MITSUBISHI MOTORS MOTOR SPORTS (GB) GALLI Gigi (I)
D´AMORE Guido (I) MITSUBISHI
Lancer WRC04 A

Woohoo, rallying is gonna be on TV again! I hate winter when there's no motorsport coverage.

I'm afraid I have to stay loyal to my own car's brand so ... go Markko!

While I want Markko to do well, I also am hoping that the new 307 and WRC Lancer do well.

It will be interesting to see how the two new cars fare against the Focus, Subaru and Citroen that we've seen so much of. Hopefully Mitsubishi have come back with a car closer to the pace than the previous one, but it will be interesting to see if the Lancer and 307 are going to be reliable or suffer from those little gremlins. I'd love to see the Mitsi do well to justify their return and give the team a much needed boost.

Shakedown times (we all know how much these mean, but still)
Marcus Grцnholm (Peugeot) 6m10.2s
Franзois Duval (Ford) 6m10.3s
Sйbastien Loeb (Citroen) 6m11.4s
Petter Solberg (Subaru) 6m11.8s
Markko Mдrtin (Ford) 6m14.0s
Mikko Hirvonen (Subaru) 6m16'.1s
Carlos Sainz (Citroen) 6m17.7s
Freddy Loix (Peugeot) 6m20.1s
Gilles Panizzi (Mitsubishi) 6m33.1s
Gigi Galli (Mitsubishi) 6m51.7s

And snow (about 40%) and -8 C are forecast for tomorrow. Tricky!

First stage cancelled due to a large number of spectators, the second stage to 307 and Marcus, by 9.9 s ahead of Martin, 3rd stage to Markko and 0.8 s ahead of Marcus. Overall after SS3:

Gronholm
Martin
Loeb
Duval
Sainz
Kresta
Galli
Solberg.

Loix 10th and Panizzi 13th.

4th stage seems to be going the way of Loeb, Sainz second, then Marcus and Markko. So Loeb now moves into 2nd lpace overall.

MARCUS GRONHOLM
Peugeot Stuck in 3rd gear 4kms from finish, later stuck in 4th gear, car pushed into service

The new 307 - fast but fragile?

Certainly fast, hope not fragile.

Still looks awkward during rally stages, just out of place :)

Is this airing on TV? I have heard nothing about it! SPEED channel sucks! What Dish Co. do I have to pay to get good Non-Nascar/Racing/Rally footage???

anyone can tell me?why Solberg still in Subaru not Mitsubishi

anyone can tell me?why Solberg still in Subaru not Mitsubishi

I'm not privy to his mangement but I'd have thought there were many places Solberg would move to before Mitsubishi. Subaru took a chance on him while he was still young and undeveloped. Together they just won the World Championship and would expect to chalenge well this year. I imagine he has a long term contract and loyalty to them. Put that against Mitsubish who have always had a half hearted commitment to WRC and there is no competition.

I guess given the lack of comments about the Monte, everybody must be as underwhelmed as I am?

With the small field, only 12 stages contributing to the result, Ford team orders and a general sense of doom foreboding future changes in the regulations (hell I don't even know that is happening this year!) are we all feeing a bit down on WRC at the moment?

I suppose it was a great result for Loeb, taking his second straight Monte. Nice for Ford to fill the out the podium and take the lead in the manufacturer's championship. Best result ever for Peugeot on the Monte, getting both it's new 307s to the finish and at times showing genuine pace. A not too disapointing result for Mitsubishi, who showed some early speed with Gali and perseverance getting Panizzi to the finish, (although how Ralliart can show up with such a half baked car after supposedly taking a whole year off to develop it is a mystery :dunno: ) Solberg too even took a SS win before dropping down the order with accident damage on the last few stages.

Maybe I'll be able to get more excited when the highlight package makes it to Australian TV in about a month...

I haven't been able to folow it closely after Friday, sorry, hence my lack of comments. Was out of town.

Loeb seems to be becoming another Tommi - Monte specialist :) Any idea if ford, Subaru and Citroen are coming out with new cars this season at all? The 307 showed good pace, and I'm sure they'll solve the reliability issues, and Mitsu rather disapointed.

OK, I have to ask: what team orders at Ford? Haven't seen any mention on wrc.com or rally-live.

Maybe I'll be able to get more excited when the highlight package makes it to Australian TV in about a month...

Well I'll be excited when they'll show any fotage at all. For god sake a frenchman wins it and it's not even mentionned in the 8 o'clock news.

Anyway, Brilliant win from Loeb (how could I say anything else), I saw some "rare" footage of in board camera while he was driving in the fog... sick.
Martin/Duval on Ford in the second and third, well with the potencial the car shown since it's been introduced it's not too much a surprise, and it will definitly be a contender for the title.
Gronholms/Loix on Peugeot in 4th and 5th, the new 307 seem a good package and it could have finish higher without Markus didn't go out. But with such a budget and the goal to take back the constructor title (specially from the ennemy sister), I'm not surprise from this result.

I was really suprised by Mitsu, I thought they would have atleast been serious contenders for the podium but... rally i guess pretty unpredictable. I was impressed with the 307 though aside from the gearbox issues Gronholm had, but I'm expecting it to really surpass the old 206. On speed they were talking about the Mitsu not having active differentials and causing troubles with tighter turns and lack of paddle shifters. Seems to me like they "rushed" it out early even though they had a whole year.

OK, I have to ask: what team orders at Ford? Haven't seen any mention on wrc.com or rally-live.

Unlikely any of the news outlets would mention it, they are not exactly renound for insightful journalism. To see what happened check Duval's splits on the last stage and read between the lines...

Sorry, Phil, but judging by press reactions and by posts on RCMG you're wrong here.

I'll take a bit more convincing than that Alex. Aparently there is some in-car footage of the final section of the stage that would be interesting to see...

Aparently Malcom Wilson has denied there were team orders - the fact he felt it necessary to say that just about confirms there must have been!

Finaly saw the Monte highlights package on Australin TV. The commentators were quite straight ahead about Ford issuing a hold position order on the last stage. Was quite funny to see Duval, being told to slow down by Prevot, going a bit too slow and stalling the engine! Lucky for him he gathered it together and just managed to keep Gronholm off the podium.