Gronholm holds off Loeb charge in Monte Carlo

Finland's Marcus Gronholm held on after an outstanding drive by world champion Sebastien Loeb to clinch his first victory in the Monte Carlo rally yesterday. The Ford driver took the lead on Friday when France's Loeb was handed a five-minute penalty...

Finland's Marcus Gronholm held on after an outstanding drive by world champion Sebastien Loeb to clinch his first victory in the Monte Carlo rally yesterday. The Ford driver took the lead on Friday when France's Loeb was handed a five-minute penalty after he failed to complete the last stage of the day following a crash.

Loeb won five stages on Saturday but Gronholm managed to hang on to finish one minute one second ahead. Finn Toni Gardemeister came in third, 21 seconds further adrift.

Gronholm, who joined Ford after six years with Peugeot, sealed his 19th win in the world championship with an overall time of 4:11.39.

Second place was a great disappointment for double world champion Loeb who was bidding for a record-equalling fourth successive Monte Carlo win.

The Frenchman, driving for the Kronos team since Citroen withdrew from the world championship, was in a class of his own throughout the race.

At ease on the mountain roads, he snatched 10 stage victories including the prestigious Col du Turini stage yesterday morning.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.