Rally of Monte Carlo

Surface: Asphalt
Conditions: Sun/ice/snow
Length: 900 miles

The Rallye Monte Carlo is the most prestigious event on the calendar due to its sense of history, with the rally being a permanent fixture on the sport's calendar since 1911. Even though the modern World Rally Championship visits a number of exotic locations, Monte Carlo is special and everyone wants to win.

Monte Carlo's status as the opening round the WRC makes it doubly important, as the teams all look to come out of the blocks running and storm to an early lead in the title race.

This suits Citroen just fine, as the opening round of the championship is on tarmac. After competing in tarmac events in recent years, before its full-scale assault on the World Rally Championship, Citroen is widely regarded as a tarmac expert and all of its drivers have been tipped to do well on the treacherous and icy roads.

Nothing is guaranteed in Monte Carlo, though, which places the drivers at the mercy of some of the most varied weather conditions on the calendar. A right tyre choice can suddenly become the wrong one, giving the drivers all sorts of problems and losing time as they fight through a blizzard in the French Alps having left the sunny conditions just a few kilometres back.

In fact tyres are critical on the narrow and unforgiving French roads, that wind through the French Alps and provide spectacular scenery, not that the driver has time to take it in! There's a compromise between safety and speed, with the daring drivers often going for slick tyres, gaining time on the fast tarmac and hanging on when the car hits the ice.

Colin goes in to Monte Carlo with a new team and is hungry for success from the start. The former World Rally Championship believes he can hit the form that made him the most successful driver in the sport's history once again with the French marque, now it's time to prove it.

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