We have a winner! The new M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 rally car led the legendary Monte Carlo race from start to finish. Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen piloted the Fiesta S2000 rally car through treacherous winter conditions in the mountains of southern France to reach the finish at Monaco’s famous harbor with a 1 minute, 51.4 second advantage over the next competitor.

The Monte Carlo Rally is a five-day rally, and it offered the toughest of debuts for the new Fiesta.  The course covers 405.01km of competition, including the Ardèche and Alpes-Maritimes regions of southern France. The Monte Carlo Rally was the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC).

The Fiesta S2000 has been developed by Ford rally partner, M-Sport. The company will now build and deliver 22 Ford Fiesta S2000 rally cars to customer teams in Finland, Czech Republic, Ireland, Spain, South Africa, Poland, Portugal, Abu Dhabi and Italy.

The expertise of the Finns, runners-up in the 2009 world championship, proved invaluable behind the wheel of the exciting new Fiesta S2000.  The rally also provided them with an ideal warm-up for the forthcoming WRC season, which begins in Sweden next month.

“The Monte Carlo Rally is one of the world’s great rallies and it’s a big thrill to win here,” said Hirvonen.  “It was a long, hard event and the conditions made the challenge even tougher.  This car is brand new to competition, but everything worked perfectly from the first kilometre.  That’s a tribute to the whole team, and particularly the people who put in so much effort over the last two weeks.”