Wilks heads Monte-Carlo IRC starters

Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh will start the centenary edition of Rallye Monte-Carlo, round one of the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, in first position on the road in their Peugeot UK 207 Super 2000.

Organisers have reversed the top 10 entries so defending IRC champion Juho Hänninen, who is entered as number one, will be the 10th driver to tackle the opening Le Moulinon-Antraigues stage.

While the Britons waited in the holding area prior to leaving the service park in Valence this morning, tyre choice for the event’s opening stage became the main topic of discussion.

Although the bulk of the leading runners have opted for an uncut version of Michelin’s medium compound SA20 tyre due to the dry nature of the mountain roads, the factory PROTON Satria Neos of P-G Andersson and Chris Atkinson left Valence with a softer compound Michelin tyre.

The top 10 starting positions are as follows:
1 Guy Wilks (Peugeot 207 S2000)
2 Andreas Mikkelsen (Škoda Fabia S2000)
3 Stéphane Sarrazin (Peugeot 207 S2000)
4 Nicolas Vouiloz (Škoda Fabia S2000)
5 François Delecour (Peugeot 207 S2000)
6 Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000)
7 Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot 207 S2000)
8 Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia S2000)
9 Petter Solberg (Peugeot 207 S2000)
10 Juho Hänninen (Škoda Fabia S2000)