Rally - Monte Day 3

Sebastien Ogier is on course for his fourth straight win in Monaco after another stunning day in the French Alps. Although Thierry Neuville had not been headed since Thursday night’s start, an impact midway through the final speed test of the penultimate leg broke his Hyundai i20 Coupe’s rear left suspension and handed the advantage to Ogier.

The Frenchman finished his day 47.1sec ahead of Ford Fiesta team-mate Ott Tänak, but his run wasn't without incident. He understeered into a field on the day's opening loop and later clipped a bank.

“Thierry has driven a great rally, with fantastic speed. To drive the whole of Monte-Carlo in these conditions at that speed is a hard challenge. Monte-Carlo is a rally where you need luck. I wished him no bad luck, he did a great job,” said Ogier.

Neuville worked furiously to make repairs and limped to the finish having lost more than 30 minutes and plunging to 15th. “It was quite a slow left corner and on the exit the rear went wide and I hit something. I don’t know what,” he said. “We started this morning knowing that Sébastien would be pushing hard, so we responded to that confidently with a stage win. Our lead was up to one minute so we took a strategic decision at the start of the afternoon loop to play safe on tyre choice. We lost a bit of time but we were still in control. In the final stage, I felt comfortable. At the start of the stage, I played with the diffs to get into a good rhythm, and things felt fine. But we went wide into a third or fourth gear corner and there was a lot of gravel. We knew this from our gravel crew, but I must have been too quickly back on the throttle because the car went wide and we hit something like concrete. Immediately, we knew something had broken so we had to stop and fix it."

Tänak had a new gearbox fitted, but it started to select gears on its own. His power steering failed at the same time, but the Estonian fixed the issues and he heads Jari-Matti Latvala by 1min 33.5sec.

An over-aggressive approach on this morning’s dry roads cost the Finn time on the following snow-covered sections as his studded tyres lost their edge. But the Toyota Yaris driver was in a comfortable podium position in Toyota’s first WRC rally for 17 years.

Craig Breen is the top Citroen C3 runner (Lefebvre is 11th)  after a most unfortunate accident befell Kris Meeke. Breen finished the day in fourth place when Dani Sordo dropped a minute in the final stage. Broken power steering sent his i20 Coupe off the road. As for Meeke, his car was hit by another vehicle on the road section to Monaco, leaving the car with a damaged rear right-hand wheel and the crew with no option but to retire.

Elfyn Evans was in stunning form in his Fiesta, winning three stages to climb to sixth.

Sunday’s finale includes a double ascent of the famous Col de Turini. Two loops of two stages are driven twice to make 53.72km of action, with bonus points available to the fastest five drivers in the final Power Stage.

Overall Classification after Day 3:

1, S. Ogier/J. Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) 3:26:10.7

2, O. Tanak/M. Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +47.1

3, J. M. Latvala/M. Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2:20.6

4, C. Breen/S. Martin (Citroën DS3 WRC) +3:47.3

5, D. Sordo/M. Martí (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +4:03.2

6, E. Evans/D. Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +7:27.2

7, A. Mikkelsen/A. Jaeger (Škoda Fabia R5) +9:15.2

8, J. Kopecky/P. Dresler (Škoda Fabia R5) +12:34.4

Rally - Monte Day 2

Pundits reckons this is a 'proper' Monte Carlo Rally with snow, ice, and - black ice. Even on studded tyres, grip is something to be hoped for, not relied upon.

Fifth at the overnight halt, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle moved into second place after the day's first stage, SS3. However, the crew slid off the road on the next stage on sheet ice. With their suspension broken, they were unable to go any further.

A disappointed Meeke said: "The conditions were difficult, as is often the case in Monte-Carlo. Some corners were covered with a layer of sheet ice and it was difficult to judge the level of grip. I got caught out on a left-hand corner. The car drifted towards the outside and the right-hand side of the car hit a bank. With the front suspension arm broken, we couldn't go any further. It was disappointing for me and for the team. This is obviously not the sort of start we were hoping to make. Clearly, we can no longer aim for a good result, but we'll keep going tomorrow to try and learn more about the C3 WRC."

Meanwhile, Thierry Neuville capitalised on a mistake from four-time world champion Sébastien Ogier to build a strong lead during Friday’s second leg of Rallye Monte-Carlo, but already Ogier was on the case charging back up the leaderboard.

During the day, Neuville twice stalled his car’s engine, but the second incident in the final stage proved the most costly. “We lost the turbo boost in the engine. I stopped in a hairpin and didn’t press the reset button. I drove for about 500 metres before remembering to reset the system,” he said.

Ogier lost more than 40sec after sliding into a ditch at little more than walking pace and beaching his Fiesta. He plunged to eighth, more than 70sec adrift of Neuville, before the fightback over the day's final two tests.

Kris Meeke was Neuville’s closest pursuer until he slid off with Ott Tänak taking up the pursuit after setting fastest time in the opening stage until Ogier slipped by.

Jari-Matti Latvala was top Toyota Yaris driver in fourth following the retirement of team-mate Juho Hänninen who crashed out of third when he hit a tree. Latvala’s day was not without problems. His car refused to start in parc ferme and he later spun in the final stage ending the day 1min 24.3sec behind Tänak.

Dani Sordo and Craig Breen were closely matched all day. Sordo’s i20 Coupe stalled several times under braking for hairpins, while Breen survived two spins and a close call at the same point as Hänninen crashed.

Leaderboard after Day 2:

1. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 2:05:24.6
2. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +45.1
3. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +45.4
4. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2:09.7
5. Dani Sordo / Marc Marti (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +2:57.8
6. Craig Breen / Scott Martin (Citroen DS3 WRC) +3:04.1
7. Andreas Mikkelsen / Anders Jaeger (Škoda Fabia R5) +5:50.8
8. Elfyn Evans / Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +8:12.1
9. Pontus Tidemand / Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia R5) +8:22.4
10. Jan Kopecky / Pavel Dresler (Škoda Fabia R5) +8:38.2

Rally - Early days

The 2017 Rallye Monte-Carlo officially got underway last night and at close of play had four different marques in the first four places, including a Toyota. Pretty good considering their lack of 'match fitness'.  During the evening's only fully completed stage, Kris Meeke set the fourth fastest time, whilst Stéphane Lefebvre was forced to stop with a mechanical issue.

After setting off from the glittering backdrop of Monaco's Place du Casino, the crews were to contest two stages on their way to Gap. However, SS1 was cancelled after one of the competitors rolled their car midway through the stage.

Unfortunately, a spectator was hit in the incident and later died despite the intervention of the emergency services. SS2 went ahead as normal, albeit slightly behind schedule.

Between Bayons and Bréziers, Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle set the fourth fastest time in their Citroën C3 WRC. In line with the instructions given by the team, the British-Irish crew did not take any risks this early in the rally.

Meanwhile, Stéphane Lefebvre and Gabin Moreau were forced to stop due to a transmission problem.

Craig Breen and Scott Martin made a promising start, recording their seventh fastest time, ahead of two new-generation World Rally Cars.

Friday's run features two loops of three stages, covering a total timed distance of 160.8km.

At the overnight halt, Kris Meeke said: "It's not how I imagine anyone wanted to start the season, with a stage cancelled because one of the competitors went off. SS2 was tricky, especially due to the gravel dragged onto the racing line by the first few cars. When you're as cautious as I was, it ends up costing you quite a bit of time. We learned some new things about the car and overall, I'm fairly pleased with this first leg."

Craig Breen added: "I was pleasantly surprised when I learned my time at the end of SS2. I thought I would be a lot further behind the 2017 cars! It's quite good fun, although it was difficult to read the road in some places. I'm pleased with my opening stage."

Yves Matton, Citroën Racing Team Principal, commented: "Kris's pace was consistent with what we planned to have at the start, insofar as it wasn't necessary to be leading the rally tonight. We're obviously disappointed for Stéphane. We'll wait for the car to get back to service to analyse the problem and the circumstances in which it arose. We are confident that both Citroën C3 WRCs will be able to continue the rally tomorrow."

Overall Classification after Day One:
1, T. Neuville/N. Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 15:01.1

2, S. Ogier/J. Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +7.8

3, J. Hänninen/K. Lindstrom (Toyota Yaris WRC) +15.0

3, K. Meeke/P. Nagle (Citroën C3 WRC) +15.8

4, O. Tanak/M. Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +19.4

5, E. Evans/D. Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +21.0

6, C. Breen/S. Martin (Citroën DS3 WRC) +25.4

7, D. Sordo/M. Martí (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +26.6

8, J. M. Latvala/M. Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +28.4

Rally - Monte shakedown

Mixed wintry conditions greeted the teams at yesterday's Monte Carlo Rally Shakedown. They had it all from dry tarmac to sheet ice, and snow!

Ogier

Meeke

Evans