The penultimate stage of Rallye Monte Carlo's 2009 edition has come to an end, with the heavy snow and black ice of the 35-kilometre Col de Braus/La Bollène-Vésubie route made trickier by the surrounding darkness.

It is in such conditions that Le Mans star Stéphane Sarrazin accomplished his fourth stage win of the rally at the controls of the official Peugeot Sport 207 S2000. The Frenchman's efforts seem to have paid off in more ways than one.

His lead on the runner-up competitor was considerable, as Jan Kopecky's Skoda Fabia took 29.9 seconds longer to complete the distance. That is enough for Sarrazin to keep Kopecky at bay and off the provisional podium by a somewhat comfortable margin.

The Czech mentioned that the road conditions did not work in his favour, either: "It was very tricky with sudden changes of grip."

The gap between the drivers in third and fourth positions was much closer, with only 1.8 seconds separating Abarth teammates Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alen. The service park stop preceding this run allowed Alen to fix his Grande Punto's engine trouble as well: "We were on three cylinders sometimes, but now, it works normally."

Peugeot Belgium-Luxemburg's Freddy Loix came next, taking the fifth spot. During service he had warned his adversaries: "I'll do everything to keep my second place in the general standings!"

Loix was followed by the very prudent and rally-leading Sébastien Ogier. The BFGoodrich driver was nearly a minute slower than the stage-winning Sarrazin racing a same-make car.

Four different makes of machine completed the top ten list on this run: Olivier Burri's Grande Punto took the seventh spot ahead of Tobia Cavallini's Peugeot 207, followed by Frédéric Romeyer's Mitsubishi Lancer and Luca Betti's 2WD Renault Clio.

The leaderboard now displays a 1:51.6 advantage for Sébastien Ogier on the determined Freddy Loix, while Stéphane Sarrazin's great run has allowed him to move further away from Jan Kopecky's intended attacks. Still in fourth place and 31.9 seconds behind Sarrazin, Kopecky is almost a minute and a half ahead of Giandomenico Basso.

Whatever the results of this 77th Monte Carlo Rally, the drivers appearing on the podium will have delivered great performances indeed.

There now remains one final test before the Monte names its conquerer: the 19 tricky, twisting, snow-covered and ice-patched kilometres of the Lantosque/Lucéram stage.