After two very difficult days in the snow and ice in the South of France, Toni Gardemeister has retired from the 78th Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, round one of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, early this morning.

After two very difficult days in the snow and ice in the South of France, Toni Gardemeister has retired from the 78th Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, round one of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge, early this morning.

The Finn had damaged his Astra Racing-run Abarth Grande Punto S2000 when he crashed into a snow bank during yesterday's penultimate stage of the day. Although his mechanics made swift repairs during the evening service halt in Valence in the hope the Finn could continue this morning, the car’s engine had in fact suffered irreparable damage. Gardemeister stopped on the road section heading to today’s first stage.

Astra Racing boss Luca Pregliasco commented: “Unfortunately we were not able to continue as a consequence of the damage sustained yesterday. As we knew we would not get to the finish we asked Toni to stop to prevent further damage. It’s a pity as Toni is a star driver who was once again doing a great job for us.

Gardemeister, 34, has a strong record on the legendary asphalt rally in France. He finished second with Astra Racing in 2006, and last season he climbed as high as second place in an Abarth Grande Punto, that was again being run by the private Italian team. This year he has endured a very difficult event. Fastest on Tuesday evening's opening prologue stage, this pace didn't translate into the rally proper, and on Wednesday he lost time by running dry weather tyres on the rain-hit opening brace of stages and more precious seconds when he overshot a left-hander on the day's second run and clouted a stone wall. Damage was miraculously limited to a scuffed front-right bumper. Yesterday Gardemeister endured further loss of time with a puncture on the first stage of the second leg and then with two spins on the penultimate test of the day. That dropped him down to an overnight tenth overall going into today's final stages.

It means there is just a single Abarth Grande Punto S2000 left in this year's edition of the legendary Rallye Monte Carlo, the private-entry of Frenchman Olivier Marty. He is locked into a battle to claw his way back up the leaderboard after he lost time on day one after running out of fuel and having to push the car to the stage finish line. Marty is up to 22nd place overall going into today's last day, but a massive 25m34.1s off the rally leader.