Jan 22 (Reuters) - Eight-times world champion Sebastien Ogier was heading for a record ninth victory in the season-opening Monte Carlo rally after taking a 21.1 second lead over old rival Sebastien Loeb into Sunday's final stages.

Neither man is competing full time this season but the icy roads in the French Alps around Monte Carlo are an old battleground for greats who between them have won 17 of the last 18 world championships.

Loeb, now 47 and driving for M-Sport Ford in his first WRC rally since 2020, has won the event seven times and started Saturday as the overnight leader.

Ogier took back the lead in Saturday's penultimate stage and was then 16.1 seconds quicker than the nine-times world champion in the 20km final stage after a late change of tactics.

"I was planning to go with the snow tyres because that was the safest option but I saw that Seb was going for slicks so I swapped at the last minute before the start," said the Toyota driver.

Loeb felt the gap was now a bit too far to catch up.

Ireland's Craig Breen was in third place for M-Sport Ford, 64.9 seconds behind Loeb.

Toyota's Elfyn Evans, last year's overall runner-up, had been third but crashed off the road in the morning and dropped out of the reckoning.

Sunday features two stages run twice with bonus points in the final Power Stage and 에그벳 67.26km of competitive action before the ceremonial finish in Monaco's Casino Squar

/>(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)