Kris Meeke will have an unexpected team-mate - and rival - on the Monte Carlo Rally.

Junior World champion Sebastien Ogier is the surprise choice of a judging panel of French motorsport journalists to drive a BF Goodrich-sponsored car on the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge starting on January 21.

The young Frenchman will drive a Super 2000 Peugeot 207 prepared and run by the same Kronos Racing team as Meeke.

The surprise factor is that Ogier is already a member of the Citroen team in the World championship and will be starting Rally Ireland just five days later.

It was thought the Monte Carlo prize, being offered by tyre supplier BF Goodrich, would go to another up-and-coming French driver but the panel voted overwhelmingly for Ogier. "I wasn't expecting to be chosen," said Ogier "but it was a real dream for me because the Monte is very much my home rally although I have never competed on it."

He and Ulsterman Meeke are no strangers. They joined forces to demonstrate Citroen's new C2-R2 Max to Irish competitors last September and afterwards Ogier drove one of the little 1600cc cars on the Ulster Rally, finishing 13th and winning his class.

He went on to win the Junior World championship for Citroen, a feat that had eluded Meeke previously, but Ogier remembered him as "being very fast" and said he hoped they would "have the chance to race against each other soon".

They did compete against each other in Germany and Spain but, for various reasons, not on a level playing field.

Now they are to have the opportunity of a genuine head-to-head in identical cars supplied by the same team. And neither of them has any real experience of the new breed of S2000 cars like the Peugeot. Ogier, however, will be pretty much on home ground. He grew up in the French Alps where he is a ski instructor.

On the other hand Meeke, despite his lack of experience on snow and ice, was the JWRC winner on the Monte Carlo Rally in 2005.Ogier is seeded at nine and Meeke at 12 in a field that is packed with Monte experts such as former World champion Didier Auriol, a three-time winner, and ex-WRC drivers like Toni Gardemeister, Stephane Sarrazin and Freddie Loix as well as reigning IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz who also drives for the Kronos team.