Sébastien Loeb and his Monaco-born co-driver Daniel Elena claimed their fifth Monte Carlo win for Citroën in today. Taking their prize at the finish ceremony in front of the Principality's palace this afternoon, the Citroën pair has carved out an indelible place in the record books of the world longest-standing and most prestigious rally.

Meanwhile, after being forced to make profit from the SupeRally ruling to re-start this morning after their problem on Day 3, Dani Sordo and Marc Martí came 11th to earn a Manufacturers' point for Citroën.

The Citroën C4 WRC's second straight win over the legendary stages of the Monte Carlo Rally follows on from the three successes notched up by its predecessor, the Xsara WRC. "This result owes much to the talent of Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena. They put in a perfect run," said Olivier Quesnel after the finish. "Another win for the team on the WRC's particularly challenging curtain-raiser is a fitting reward for all the hard work put in by everyone at Citroën Sport."

Indeed, the team led from start to finish, staking an early claim in the Vercors Mountains on Thursday evening when the C4 WRC of Dani Sordo/Marc Martí emerged in the lead after SS1 before their team-mates took over in front after the following test. A series of five consecutive top-two stage times had many believing that the two Citroën crews were heading for a repeat of their one-two finish on this event last year, but Dani ultimately had to call on the SupeRally ruling to be able to continue after suffering a mechanical problem on SS11.

The morning was less successful, however, for their team-mates Dani Sordo/Marc Martí: "The day started well enough," related the Spanish driver. "I was very pleased with the way my Citroën C4 WRC was performing and I tried to push without driving excessively quickly. The first two stages enabled us to increase our advantage over the crew following in third place, but then we had a scare with the engine on SS11 (Lamastre).

I stopped to see if it was possible to repair but after a few minutes the team took the decision not to try to continue. I am obviously very disappointed not to be able to scorebig points for Citroën here this weekend." Settling into a pace that was sufficiently quick for them to stay concentrated, Sébastien and Daniel rounded off the final day of competition in France's Ardèche region in front. "This afternoon, I drove especially carefully on Saint Bonnet which was still damp," reported Sébastien.

"I'm glad the northern stages of this year's Monte Carlo Rally are behind us. We now head south for the last five tests which could still cause an upset or two." "It's been a day of contrasting fortunes for us," concluded Olivier Quesnel. "Sébastien, Daniel and their Citroën C4 WRC once again showed their speed and superbly came through all the potential pitfalls unscathed.

They will now need to put in the same sort of performance tomorrow and I am counting on their experience on Sunday's stages which include the Col du Turini where spectators have a habit of throwing snow onto the road. That creates an added difficulty which isn't in the pacenotes and can take the crews by surprise.

I am delighted with Sébastien's day but it would have been nice to have seen Dani and Marc continue their perfectly-paced run, but turbo failure decided otherwise. After repairs, they will profit from the SupeRally ruling to re-start tomorrow morning.

They are currently ninth in the classification for drivers eligible to score points and there's a chance they could finish in the points on Sunday afternoon."