Ogier's rally ends as Loeb continues to lead

Sebastian Loeb continues to lead the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo, as expected, and has extended his lead throughout the day, also as expected.

Since Jari-Matti Latvala crashed out on the last stage yesterday, little has troubled Loeb at the head of the rally. Never one to back off too much, Loeb won every one of today's stages bar one, on which he came second by 0.2 secs to Dani Sordo on SS8.

The scrap over second is still very close, but now second placed Sordo is over 1 and a half minutes behind. Sordo and the sole remaining works Fiesta RS WRC of Petter Solberg are only separated by 3.7 secs. The place swapped between the pair no less than four times, but despite their matched pace, neither driver was happy with their set-ups or tyre choices.

Mikko Hirvonen sits fourth, gradually and consistently gaining confidence in his new surroundings and the new car. He is still, however, uncomfortable in the car, and coupled with the ever-changing conditions that are present in the mountains surrounding Valance and Monte Carlo, he's struggling to make an impression on the Top 4.

Still top 'independent' Evegny Novikov is still driving a mature rally, and still proving the doubters, who expected the car to be sitting on the back of a recovery truck in pieces, very wrong. The Russian is running fifth.

The experienced and charismatic Francois Delecour is sixth, steadily improving his position as others fall by the wayside. Pierre Campana in the other MINI is keeping his car on the road and is seventh. Ott Tanak is still impressing in his Monte Carlo début. A costly stall on SS10 cost the young Estonian some time, but nevertheless only 6 secs separate the two.

PG Andersson is ninth in the S2000 Proton, continuing to lead S-WRC ahead of Craig Breen. Tenth in the sole-remaining VW entered Skoda Fabia S2000 of Kevin Abbring, another one of the S2000's impressing during the rally.

Arguably the story of the rally, after Latvala's stunning drive ended in it's acrimonious manner, was Sebastian Ogier and his S2000 Fabia. Talk of a podium ended abruptly, as did his first rally with VW, with a massive crash on the final test of the day. Photos post-crash showed the wreaked Skoda sitting miserably at the side of the road, not a straight panel on the car.