Loeb triumphs in Monte Carlo Rally

MOTOR SPORT:Sebastian Loeb and Dani Sordo gave the Citroen C4 WRC a tremendous rally debut by finishing first and second in the 75th Monte Carlo Rally. The works Ford Focus WRCs of Marcus Gronholm (third) and Miki Hirvonen (fifth) were split by Chris Atkinson in a Subaru WRC.

The Irish crew of Gareth MacHale and Paul Nagle finished a highly creditable 11th overall in this opening round of the World Rally Championship.

MacHale in an 03 Focus WRC finished one place in front of Matthew Wilson and Michael Orr (Bangor) in a Stobart M-Sport Focus.

Eamonn Boland (Wexford) and Francis Regan (Belfast) finished in 15th place.

In Monaco yesterday MacHale said: "Monte Carlo has a reputation of being the best and most challenging round in the championship, so we were keen to move up the rankings from 16th on last year's event and this finish is an excellent result."

MacHale has decided not to contest the next two WRC rounds, in Sweden and Norway, and will compete in Mexico on March 9th-11th.

Next event for MacHale and Nagle is the Galway International on February 2nd-4th, where they will drive an M-Sport run Ford Focus WRC along with the Finnish ace Marcus Gronholm.

Meanwhile the Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel sealed his third Dakar Rally triumph on yesterday's 15th and final stage in the Senegalese capital.

With the overall victory all but confirmed after yesterday's final major stage, the Mitsubishi driver cruised home in 51st place in yesterday's 16-km special stage to take the title by seven minutes and 23 seconds from his compatriot and team-mate Luc Alphand.

The win makes it a hat-trick of successes for Peterhansel following triumphs in 2004 and 2005

Overall, Jean-Louis Schlesser made it a clean sweep for the French, claiming a distant third place, more than 90 minutes behind Peterhansel.

Volkswagen's Giniel de Villiers took stage honours, the South African racing home in seven minutes and 42 seconds.

His team-mate Carlos Sainz narrowly failed to make it four successive stage wins, posting second, two seconds behind de Villiers, while Robby Gordon of the US took third for Hummer.

In the bikes, Latvian Janis Vinters won the day with a time of eight minutes 42 seconds, seven seconds ahead of Norway's Pal Anders Ullevalseter, with Portugal's Helder Rodrigues third.

But overall it was KTM's Cyril Depres who secured his second Dakar Rally win, 34 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of his French compatriot David Casteu, with Chris Blais of the US third.

Depres was able to amble home in 56th place for the stage knowing victory was assured following long-time leader Marc Coma's crash on stage 13.

n In New Zealand Team Ireland A1 had yet another disastrous two races yesterday. Richard Lyons qualified ninth for the sprint race only to retire with a broken driveshaft. Starting 20th in the A1 Grand Prix feature race he worked his way up to 11th but after clipping a kerb the Irish car retired with broken rear suspension, five laps from the finish.

Both races were won by the German star Nico Hulkenberg, with Loic Duval (France) and Jonny Reid (NZ) runners-up in both races. Germany (65 points) lead France (46), New Zealand (36) and Mexico (34). Ireland have only one point, scored by Michael Devaney, who has abandoned the series.