Belgian surprise rally leader

RALLYING paid homage to the old and the new yesterday when the Monte Carlo rally ushered in a new era for the world championship and Belgium's Freddy Loix unexpectedly burst into the lead after the first timed stage held on part of the Monaco Grand Prix circuit

Once Paddy Hopkirk, Time Makinen and Rauno Aaltonen had made a high-speed tour of the opening stage in the Minis that dominated the rally in the 1960s. their lavishly sponsored, hugely-expensive successors took to a shortened version of the grand prix track for the benefit of the TV cameras

Seizing his moment, Loix and his supposedly outmoded Toyota earned a fleeting taste of glory on a stage that has little bearing on the long tests that lie ahead in the Alps.

Torrential rain is likely to be the only common factor in the week ahead and brought a scowl to the face of Britain's Colin McRae, who slipped into a comfortable joint third place in his Subaru, behind Loix and Ford's lead driver, Carlos Sainz. "The rain won't melt all the snow and it'll probably make conditions even worse," McRae predicted.

As his new co-driver Nicky Grist put it: "Not necessarily the fastest, but the luckiest and the cleverest driver will win this rally."

Taking part for the third time, McRae has no great liking for the world's oldest and most famous rally. Like his opponents, he would rather gamble at home in Monaco than on tyre choice for ice-strewn, rain-lashed mountain passes where yawning drops beckon the unwary.

The drivers will set out from Valence today for five tricky, timed stages in the Ardeche mountains.