Anyone with a keen interest in rallying would have suffered from a bad case of deja-vu after this years opener - the Monte Carlo Rally. A Tommi Makinen victory, Colin McRae chasing hard until retirement within sight of a podium place, and both Peugeot and Subaru out of the rally before the start of leg two. It all had a very familiar ring to it.

Subaru were the first to feel the strain. Their second manufacturer's points scoring car of Markko Martin ground to a halt on its way to the first stage. Technical gremlins caused the young Estonian's retirement.

Reigning champions Peugeot had mixed fortunes on the first few stages. Champion Marcus Gronholm was only 11th quickest, while Gilles Panizzi was fifth, but the real star was Didier Auriol who grabbed the lead on stage 2.

Ford made the wrong tyre choice that saw the teams three drivers languishing in the bottom half of the top ten. McRae was the highest placed Focus in 8th place overall. Meanwhile Richard Burns was no better off managing only 15th overall, while his team-mate Petter Solberg lay second to Auriol.

Makinen suffered in the conditions early on and only managed 6th by first service while Belgian Freddy Loix was no better off in 9th place. Hyundai were reduced to one car by this stage - that of Alister McRae in 14th, Pierro Liatti retiring when he lost oil pressure early on. Skoda's Armin Schwarz was in sixth place, but team-mate Bruno Thiry had blown a turbocharger and was well down the field.

The surprise of the first stage however, was Toni Gardemeister in a privately run Peugeot 206. He was fastest on the first test, but a puncture on the second put him well down the order.

At first service Marcus Gronholm had problems. He had only just made it out of stage 2 and water pump failure resulted in his retirement. Peugeot's problems had just begun. While on stage 3, Gilles Panizzi ditched his 206 off the road and Didier Auriol slid wide and ripped a wheel off his car. He made it out of stage 3, but stewards would not allow him to start stage 4. End of Peugeot's Monte Carlo Rally.

After stage 4 though, it was Ford's Colin McRae who set fastest time and moved into the lead of the rally. His team-mates Carlos Sainz and Francois Delacour were not far behind in 4th and 5th places respectively.

Petter Solberg still held second place, and problems with Burn's Impreza had been resolved to help his way up the order and into the top 6. Tommi Makinen meanwhile held third place desperately looking to get his season off to the perfect start. The spectacular Armin Schwarz started losing time on stages 3 and 4 due to the wrong tyres and moved from 6th place to 9th.

On stage 5 Subaru's world was turned upside down along with Solberg's Impreza, when he rolled out of the rally after running wide on a corner. This moved Burns up to 6th, but this would not last for long.

The Fords were still flying and taking the stages by storm. McRae and Nicky Grist were still leading the rally, while Carlos Sainz set fastest time on the final stage to move into third place. Makinen chose too hard a tyre for the last two stages and paid the penalty losing time to McRae, but he still held second overnight albeit 30 seconds down. Richard Burns moved into fourth, but his car started misfiring on the way to overnight parc ferme and the decision was made to not restart in the morning, the problem being the same as Markko Martin's which forced his retirement so early on. Subaru were forced to pack up early and start planning for Sweden. Armin Schwarz had got his Skoda up to 5th at the end of leg 1 just 0.2 seconds ahead of the Ford Focus of Francois Delacour, the Ford trio coping very well in the tricky conditions.

McRae started leg 2 cautiously with 2nd and 4th fastest time on the first two stages, while Makinen tried to reel the Scot in. Sainz meanwhile lost more time on the leaders but still held his third place. Armin Schwarz had moved up to 4th with Burns' retirement, but it didn't take long for Francois Delacour to overtake the German driver and to open up a gap on the chasing Skoda. While the leading drivers fought out their own battles, Hyundai's Alister McRae quietly made his way up the order to take 6th place after the first two stages of the day, in his debut drive on the Monte.

Tommi Makinen moved into the lead of the rally on the first stage after service taking advantage of McRae's problems on the stage. The Scot had a few hairy moments when he had to brake due to the amount of spectators standing on the road. He only managed 5th fastest time on this test dropping a place to the Finn. Sainz still held third place while Delacour set fastest time moving him closer to the Spaniard.

The next test was cancelled due to an excessive amount of spectators, the second time in two years that this has happened.

Ford was 1st and 2nd over the next stage, Sisteron, while Makinen set 3rd fastest time. McRae took back his lead at the end of leg two. Makinen finished the day in 2nd while Sainz was around 50 seconds back still in third. Delacour started having problems with his gearbox in Sisteron, and Armin Schwarz took his opportunity to grab fourth place from the Frenchman. Alister McRae still held 6th in his Hyundai Accent although he was a long way back.

The third leg was a repeat of last year with McRae hoping to take victory from the hard-charging Tommi Makinen. The run over the Col de Turini is where McRae and Grist retired last year while leading and this year was to be no different. The electronic throttle failed on a hairpin, which meant they had to change over to the mechanical version. This lost them a lot of time and nearly caused Makinen to hit them when he rounded the corner to see the Focus stranded in the middle of the road. He knew then that he had the rally won as long as he finished with no problems. McRae's car made it through some of the stage, but failed again later in the stage, he retired a bitterly disappointed driver.

Sainz was over a minute behind now in 2nd while Delacour and Schwarz were having an epic scrap for 3rd, the Frenchman now just over a second behind the German and using all the road to make up time, and shedding bumpers along the way. Freddy Loix too had upped his pace and had climbed to 5th overall. Alister McRae was still in 6th but had a coming together with a stone wall.

The only changes to the top four was fought out between Delacour and Schwarz while Makinen went on to score a convincing victory one minute ahead of Sainz. Delacour set a blistering pace over the last stage to take 3rd from Schwarz beating him by 20 seconds. Behind this battle Freddy Loix dropped to 6th to make way for a hard-charging Toni Gardemeister in his Grifone-run Peugeot allowing him to take 5th from the Belgian. Alister McRae finished 7th and took 2 manufacturers points for Hyundai on his Monte debut.

Makinen made a perfect start to his championship season, but with both Subaru and Peugeot non-finishing on this event he is bound to find things tighter later on in the season.

Drivers Points
Makinen ............... 10
Sainz ................... 6
Delacour ............. 4
Schwarz .............. 3
Gardemeister ...... 2
Loix ................... 1

Manufacturers Points
Mitsubishi .......... 13
Ford .................. 6
Skoda ................ 5
Hyundai ............. 2