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Sebastien Ogier chose his starting position due to setting fastest qualifying time yesterday, and he turned that to his advantage to take the early lead in the Swedish Rally.

Conditions were cold and bright for the Swedish Rally qualifying session, with light snowfall and a temperature of -5C.

The promotion group Red Bull Media House and the sportsman media are already painting the 2014 WRC Rally New Zealand as an ultimate destination.

The Rally Sweden represents a gruelling test for the drivers and the team’s technology: the rally cars are consistently pushed to their very limits, despite temperatures plummeting to between 10 and 20 degrees below freezing.

The final night of the FIA World Rally Championship opening event in Monaco was the scene of crashes and stage cancellations. Once again Sebastien Loeb earned the 'Monte' win, and early points Citroen Total Abu Dhabi team.

A couple of hours before SS14, 75 per cent of the Turini roads were covered in snow and the white stuff was falling. Then it turned to rain, and the roads became a treacherous mix of snow, slush and water. Carnage ensued.

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team watched their ace expand his overall lead! Sebastien Ogier has the new Volkswagen Polo just 1min 34.8sec off the pace of "Seb", the champion!

Sebastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena proved again why they have nine FIA World Rally championships. Dealing with the changing conditions, the French ace is in control of the leaderboard.

Monte Carlo shakedown saw former Citroen driver Thierry Neuville set the pace in his new ride with the Qatar World Rally Ford team. Sebastien Loeb, who is running a partial schedule this year, was second fastest.

20,000 kilometres of testing, 1,700 parts designed completely from scratch, 17 months of preparations – all for the debut at the Rally Monte Carlo.

Sébastien Ogier together with co-driver Julien Ingrassia, and Jari-Matti Latvala and his co-driver Miikka Anttila launch new Volkswagen 2013 Polo R WRC. Andreas Mikkelsen and new co-driver Mikko Markkula will run third Polo in selected events.

Nancy Knapp Schilke, WRC Correspondent