Driving a Citroen C4 and partnered by Monaco’s Daniel Elena, Loeb recorded his fifth victory on the world’s longest-standing rally, eclipsing rally legends Walter Rohrl and Tommy Makinen, each with four.

Loeb set fastest time on 10 of the 19 special stages, commenting; “The C4 and the Pirelli tyres also functioned well together on these asphalt stages which were often damp”.

Monte Carlo heralded the move to Pirelli control tyres, without the use of anti-deflation mousse.

Second place went to the new team leader in the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, Mikko Hirvonen. With co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen the Finnish pairing produced their best performance on this event to begin Ford’s defence of their Manufacturers tile.

Third pace went to Australian Chris Atkinson, driving a Subaru Impreza, who admitted to taking calculated risks on his way to three stage wins and a time equal to François Duval on the final stage around part of the famous Monaco Grand prix Circuit.

Atkinson, with the confidence of English-language pace-notes from his Belgian co-driver Stephan Prevot, also delivered a career-best result on this, the first of 15 rounds in the 2008 World Rally Championship.

His team-mate Petter Solberg, partnered by Welshman Phil Mills was classified fifth.

Sweden’s Per-Gunnar Andersson finished eighth overall, earning both a drivers' point and manufacturers' points for the Suzuki team on its world championship debut. 

Britain’s Matthew Wilson re-united with Scott Martin, finished 10^th in the Stobart/VK liveried Ford Focus.

Dani Sordo (Citroen) after stopping with engine problems re-started under SuperRally rules and eventually finished 11th to claim the final manufacturers' point.  Toni Gardemeister (Suzuki) retired on the final leg with engine overheating problems.

Ends.