Sainz looking for Monte Carlo treble

Spain's Carlos Sainz topped the standings in the Monte Carlo Rally on Tuesday night after overnight leader and dual world champion Tommi Makinen crashed out on the day's first special stage.

The Toyota Corolla WRC driver, looking for his third Monte Carlo success, heads Finland's Juha Kankkunen by 55.3 seconds in a Ford Escort and Britain's Richard Burns by 1min 58.8sec in a Mitsubishi.

Scotland's Colin McRae, who narrowly missed out on the world title last year, is fourth in a Subaru, 2:05.06 behind Sainz.

Hospital tests

But it was a poor day for Makinen, who has never won this event and will enter a Finnish hospital for tests tomorrow, having recently suffered pneumonia.

The Finnish driver chose wider tyres than his competitors and on snow-covered roads concealing ice, he crashed just three kilometres after the start of the rally's seventh special stage.

"I had bad information on the state of the road, but it was my fault," he admitted.

France's Francois Delecour also nearly came to grief, his Peugeot falling 10 metres off the side of the road. "I managed to get my car back up again. It was a miracle," he said.

While others were having problems in the trying conditions, the stage was set for Sainz to show his immense experience.

Four-time world champion Kankkunen claimed the eighth special stage, the longest of the day at 36.72km.

Italy's Piero Liatti, who won the rally last year, lost a minute when he rolled his Subaru over, but he bounced back to capture the 9th and 10th special legs.

Subaru also triumphed in the 11th stage through McRae, but French drivers dominated the last two legs, with Auriol taking the 12th and Bruno Thiry the 13th.

The rally finishes on Wednesday. The next round of the championship takes place in Sweden starting on February 6.