MONTE CARLO, Jan 20: Frenchman Sebastien Loeb secured a maiden world championship victory in the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally on Sunday but will have to wait for up to 40 days to see whether the result stands.

Loeb came home 45.9 seconds ahead of Finn Tommi Makinen, but faces a potential two-minute time penalty following an illegal tyre change by his Citroen team.

Leading provisional times: 1. Sebastien Loeb (France) Citroen three hours, 58 minutes and 44.8 seconds; 2. Tommi Makinen (Finland) Subaru + 45.9 seconds; 3. Carlos Sainz (Spain) Ford + 2:01.6; 4. Colin McRae (Britain) Ford + 2:43.9; 5. Marcus Gronholm (Finland) Peugeot + 2:53.3; 6. Petter Solberg (Norway) Subaru + 3:15.5; 7. Gilles Panizzi (France) Peugeot + 4:08.0; 8. Richard Burns (Britain) Peugeot + 5:02.3.—Reuters