Category: WRC, Rally

Monte Carlo, 26 Jan 2019: Sebastien Ogier has maintained his Rallye Monte-Carlo lead after Saturday morning’s two stages and the Frenchman has marginally extended his advantage over Thierry Neuville, the rivals still only split by 5.3 seconds. Jari-Matti Latvala has moved up into third, following the retirement of Andreas Mikkelsen.

Today’s route, which ultimately takes the crews to Monaco this evening, takes in two repeated loops of two stages covering 93.38 competitive kilometres. Tyre choices were more straight-forward today and Ogier went into the loop adopting a cautious approach. He immediately took 3.6 seconds out of Neuville in the opener and while the Belgian attempted to strike back in the second stage, he was unable to significantly close the gap. Neuville admitted his tyre choice was not the best in the second stage but was happy with his performance otherwise.

Behind them, the battle for third was intense but ultimately swung in Latvala’s favour. The Finn had a good feeling with the Yaris and from fifth, this morning moved into fourth after the first stage when Andreas Mikkelsen was forced to retire at the end of the stage having taken a wheel off when he hit a wall. Sebastien Loeb initially moved into third after SS9 but then dropped behind Latvala when he stalled at the start of the next stage. He and Latvala are now just 4.7 seconds apart going into the afternoon’s repeated loop.

Ott Tänak has also moved up the leaderboard courtesy of two fastest times, and retirements, the Estonian lucky to escape after nearly going off the road in SS10. Kris Meeke is in the sixth, managing his pace and focusing on points in the Power Stage tomorrow such is the gap to the fifth position.

Gus Greensmith is seventh and leading the FIA WRC 2 Pro Championship ahead of Kalle Rovanperä, the rivals each winning one of the morning stages. Yoann Bonato has also maintained his WRC 2 Championship lead and heads Guillaume de Mevius by over two minutes.

In addition to Mikkelsen, Esapekka Lappi was forced into retirement with an unconfirmed technical issue, and Elfyn Evans went off the road.

Monte Carlo, 25 Jan 2019: Reigning FIA World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier has moved into the lead of Rallye Monte-Carlo at the end of the first full day of competition, but the Frenchman has just two-seconds in hand to Thierry Neuville after a total of eight tricky mountain stages. Andreas Mikkelsen has leapt from fifth at the mid-leg service to third overnight, albeit over a minute adrift already.

The repeated afternoon loop of three stages ran without problems and Ogier closed the gap to Neuville in the opening stage to just 1.4 seconds having set joint fastest time with Jari-Matti Latvala. While the Frenchman didn’t win either of the following stages, a consistent but cautious pace maintained his advantage heading into Saturday. Neuville dropped at least 15 seconds in the first stage when the car wouldn’t turn in and he had to spin his Hyundai back onto the right road. Otherwise, the Belgian has had a good day and high confidence in the last stage helped him reel in another fastest time. Mikkelsen is exercising a degree of caution and has had a clean run, overhauling Ott Tänak and Sebastien Loeb during the afternoon loop.

Latvala took a safe tyre choice which helped him equal Ogier’s fastest SS6 time and the Finn is just 7.4 seconds adrift of Mikkelsen. Loeb knew he would struggle with his tyres on the first stage, gambling on gaining in the following two. He set another fastest time in the middle stage to rocket from seventh to third, only to drop back to fifth in the final stage. He is however only eight-tenths of a second off Latvala. Elfyn Evans had a great feeling in the middle stage but had to take it easy over the icy sections in the final stage; he is sixth, 21.6 seconds behind Loeb. After a great start and the rally lead last night, Tänak is now seventh having stopped to change a puncture which dropped him from third. Kris Meeke had a frustrating afternoon, sustaining another broken rim and a broken damper as a consequence. The Northern Irish driver nevertheless remains upbeat, confident the speed has been there.

Gus Greensmith has now moved into ninth overall and leads the newly-created FIA WRC 2 Pro Championship. He is trading fastest times with Kalle Rovanperä but continues to have a healthy advantage after the Finn lost time off the road last night. Yoann Bonato is also inside the top 10, leading WRC 2 in his Citroen C3 R5. He won one of the afternoon’s three stages and heads Adrien Fourmaux by nearly two minutes.

The leading retirements of the afternoon were Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand. Lappi hit a rock, damaged a wheel and broke the wishbone and driveshaft, while Tidemand was also forced out with a broken wishbone.

Rallye Monte-Carlo – Unofficial results after Section 3