Hirvonen stays in charge in Monte Carlo

MONTE CARLO (AFP) - Mikko Hirvonen kept the overall lead in the 78th running of the Monte Carlo Rally on Thursday, opening a gap of 47sec over Finnish compatriot Juho Hanninen.

Mikko Hirvanen (© AFP/File - Carl de Souza)

Hirvonen, the runner-up in the world rally championship in 2009, took one of the day's stages in his Ford Fiesta as did Hanninen in a Skoda Fabia.

French Peugeot driver Sebastien Ogier moved into third place overall, 1min 10.3sec off the pace after taking three stages in this opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, a slimmed-down version of the world rally championship.

Britain's Kris Meeke, the IRC champion in 2009 and second overnight, crashed out of contention when his Peugeot skidded on black ice.

"I knew there was ice and I knew from last year that Nicolas Vouilloz went off there," said Meeke.

"I came up to the corner and I’d all my big braking done and then I saw everyone’s brake marks in front of me so I thought everyone was going in way deeper than me.

"So I came off the brakes a bit, got to the corner and went off on the slushy black ice. I was five miles per hour too fast and there was nothing I could do. It was as if it happened in slow motion."