Bouffier wins Monte Carlo Rally for Peugeot

French driver Bryan Bouffier won the centenary edition of the Monte Carlo Rally, to clinch the biggest win of his career, so far. On the wheels of a Peugeot 207 Super 2000, the French took everyone by surprise by taking victory in the historic rally.

Bouffier had never even scored an Intercontinental Rally Challenge point prior to his win this weekend, as he had the quick pace but luck failed him in some his appearances. Thanks to tyre choice and perfect drive on the rally's only two snow-hit stages, the reigning French rally champion took the command of the Monte Carlo race, never to let it sleep away again.

Before Thursday’s snowfall, the Monte Carlo Rally was being dominated by reigning IRC champion Juho Hanninen, which had already an advantage of 50 seconds over Petter Solberg, Freddy Loix and Stephane Sarrazin that were fighting for runner-up spot. Frther back was Bouffier fighting with fighting Guy Wilks and Jan Kopecky for fifth place.

But the weather forecast dramatically changed and so did the leaderboard. On SS7 and SS8 many of the front runners were surprised by the heavy snowfall, with Hanninen and Solberg going down the order to sixth and seventh.

It wasn’t the case with Bouffier that with his stud-less winter tyres won SS7 and climbed from seventh into the lead. With the two studded tyres fitted for SS8 Bouffier managed to gain an extra half-minute lead over François Delecour, which also made an impressive climb from eighth to second.

With Delecour failing to keep the pace on the last day of competition, Bouffier was left with no pressure at the front, being able to manage his time advantage in the final stages, finishing 32.5 seconds ahead of Loix, with the podium being completed by Le Mans Racer Stephane Sarrazin.

"It's fantastic, really fantastic, I'm so happy," said Bouffier. "I had big pressure, but I was thinking about the end of the stage. There was a lot of emotion, it's fantastic.

"Monte Carlo for a rally driver is really amazing, especially this year with lots of fantastic drivers and amazing weather conditions."