It was a late finish last night, especially for the service crews
and back up teams, as the remote Service Area at Gap had to be dismantled and
shipped 242 kms (150 mls) back to Monaco, then rebuilt again for today’s final
Leg starting this afternoon, and of course, which features the classic
and scary 'Col du Turini.'
The star of the show so far, and maybe I’m biased, has been young Elfyn
Evans. Showing a maturity and competence that other more established stars
could heed, he re-starts today in sixth place with team mate Mikko Hirvonen holding
seventh.
It was all about consistency for Evans and co-driver Daniel
Barritt. Taking a sensible approach given their unfamiliarity of the stages,
the British duo regularly posted top-ten times to rival some of their more
experienced adversaries. They also managed to finish the day with a wee
flourish, fourth fastest time through the final 'Clumanc -Lambruisse' (SS11) test.
For Hirvonen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen, re-acclimatising
themselves with the Fiesta was far from easy. Having no previous experience of
M-Sport's up-dated challenger compromised tyre choices often meant that he had
a less than favourable set-up for the rain-soaked stages, but the Finn is well
aware that the phrase 'to finish highly, first you have to finish' is perhaps
best suited to the FIA World Rally Championship's (WRC) traditional opener.
At
the end of another action packed day, Elfyn Evans (6th) said: "The last stage [SS11] was
good, but overall the day has just been about conserving what we have and
making sure we get the car to the end. This is a fantastic opportunity for me
and the knowledge we've gained so far is pretty invaluable. I don't think you
could experience conditions like this anywhere else, and now we just need to
ensure that we make the most of it."
Mikko
Hirvonen (7th) added: "It's been tricky. There are so many things about the car and
about the set-up that you need to know for Tarmac. Now that I get more mileage,
I am started to understand what I need to change to make it more comfortable
for me to drive. It's not easy and, driving with a compromised tyre choice all
the time, it's tough. We have to be happy that we are here. I think everyone
knows that Monte is never over until it's over and there are still some very
difficult stages to come tomorrow. We just need to wait and see what
happens."
Having fought back from his spin yesterday morning on the ninth
test, Bryan Bouffier holds second place just under a minute behind the rally
leader and given the nature of the roads, who knows what will happen this
afternoon and evening?
A
pretty relaxed Bryan Bouffier said: "I am really pleased with the way our
rally has gone. Considering the conditions and the spin that we had [on SS9] we
have to be happy to still be here in such a strong position. Looking at where
we are now, I think it would be interesting to see some snow tomorrow. The [Day
3] stages are very narrow and when you complicate them with an added challenge
like that, anything can happen. We have already seen how positions can change.
But overall, our target will be to maintain this position – not to do anything
stupid, and to get to the end of the rally with a good result."
M-Sport
Managing Director, Malcolm Wilson OBE, added: "Bryan [Bouffier] has had
another great day. I think it's fair to say that we were maybe a little
ambitious with the tyre choice this afternoon as the conditions were a lot
worse than we had expected, but there were a lot of moments for a lot of
drivers out there. Sadly, Bryan's spin cost him the lead, but he remains in a
really strong position. Looking at his times from today, we know what he is
capable of. But perhaps more importantly, we all know that anything can happen
on 'Col de Turini.' It's certainly all to play for."
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