The champions of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge received their trophies on Thursday in a 'glittering ceremony' held at the Paris headquarters of French television company, TF1.

After thanking all the partners who have supported the IRC series in its debut year, Jacques Behar the president of IRC promoter, Eurosport Events, underlined the fundamental values of the series.

"The IRC has lived up to its name by visiting several other continents as well as Europe this year," said Behar. "We've forged onwards with innovations, by including rallies in Russia and China, as well as resurrecting the Safari Rally to a truly international level.

"The series is open to all, as the rules allow any driver from a registered manufacturer to score points. All our rallies are extremely popular events, which have become even more popular since the advent of the IRC, and there is no control tyre, in order to open up the series to as many people as possible and promote competition."

The top three manufacturers, drivers and co-drivers were presented with their trophies by the IRC's motorsport development manager Jean-Pierre Nicolas and they were also applauded by some of the leading lights in international rallying such as Gilles Panizzi, Simon Jean-Joseph, Luca Betti and Umberto Scandola.

Accepting the manufacturers' prize on behalf of Peugeot, Frederic Saint- Geours, Peugeot's managing director, commented: "An important and integral part of Peugeot Sport's campaign this year is the customer competitions programme, and we would like to thank all our clients and distributors for creating an excellent platform on which our 207 Super 2000 rally car was able to show its merits."

Enrique Garcia Ojeda, who won the drivers' championship this year, added: "Thank you to everybody who has made this possible; to Peugeot Spain and to Eurosport for organising this fantastic series. It has been a very competitive year, and I feel honoured to accept this trophy."

His co-driver, Jordi Barrabes Costa, was awarded the co-drivers' championship trophy.

In addition to the top three drivers, co-drivers and teams, all the participating manufacturers and event organisers received a trophy to mark their contribution to year. The IRC's three tyre partners - BFGoodrich, Pirelli and Yokohama - were also honoured for their role in the IRC's first season.