"It's fantastic for me to be back in the World Championship with Suzuki, and if things go well for us in Monte Carlo I think we can come away with points," he added. "The car is still new, so we're not going to be on the pace of the frontrunners yet, but the overall set-up and reliability is good.

"The SX4 has a very compact wheelbase so it changes direction quickly, which will be very useful on the fast and twisty roads of Monte Carlo. This is always an unpredictable event, but I think that mixed conditions could actually work in our favour. I'm particularly looking forward to the Col de Turini stages on Sunday: these are unique stages and I've always had a very good feeling with them."


Production Car WRC / Junior WRC:

The Rallye Monte Carlo is the only event of the season -like last year - that will not count as either a round of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship or the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship. The Production Car WRC begins in Sweden next month, while the Junior series gets underway on round three in Mexico, also in February.


Other significant entries:

Just under 50 crews are due to start.

Around 49 crews are due to start the season opener, eighteen of which will be in World Rally Cars.

In addition to the manufacturer drivers', former Junior Rally Championship runner, Conrad Rautenbach will use a Citroen Xsara WRC, like he did on Wales Rally GB, while five Peugeots are entered, with Francois Delecour, Laurent Carbonaro, Jean-Marie Cuoq and Philippe Roux due to compete in 307 WRC's, while Frederic Romeyer will use a 206 WRC.

Of the rest, around 17 will battle it out for Group N honours, while a further twelve will be in contention for the A7 class victory.


Route:

The rally retains many of last year's innovations while adding several more for 2008. The opening three days are based in Valence, but then the event heads south to Monaco for a fourth day of action high above the Principality in the mountains of the Alpes Maritimes. This is the only WRC round to run four full days' competition.

Thursday evening's opening action is in darkness throughout and heads into the Vercors mountains, east of Valence. On Friday the route moves south-west of the city into the Ardèche before Saturday's longest day of the rally north-west of Valence. A free transit section takes competitors to Monaco before Sunday's final loop, which brings the return of the legendary Col de Turini after a year's absence.

After the success of last year's test, the rally ends with a short super special stage around the harbour area of Monaco's Grand Prix circuit. Drivers tackle 19 stages in total, covering 365.09 kilometres in a route of 1481.25 kilometres.


Last year:

Sebastien Loeb lead the Rallye Monte Carlo from start to finish in 2007, stamping his authority on proceedings from the off, when he won both the night stages that made up the very short leg 1.

In the end the Frenchman comfortably won by 38.2 seconds, to take his fourth victory at the Principality and to equal the record held by held by Sandro Munari, Walter Rohrl and Tommi Makinen - all of whom have also won the Rallye Monte Carlo four times.