The Monte Carlo Rally played two of its three stages and the Frenchman Sebastien Ogier (Toyota Yaris) is on his way to his ninth victory in the Principality event, in a run that began in 2014 and that he might not achieve last year due to the effectiveness from his archrival, Sebastien Loeb (Ford Puma).
Sebastien Ogier took the stage with a lot of reservations due to the cuts in the asphalt that might lead to a broken tire and, there, losing the race. The current champion Kalle Rovanpera (Toyota) took advantage of this “impasse” that Ogier took to get as much time as possible with the leader, thinking of adding good points for the tournament since Ogier will not run the entire calendar.
And the young Finn achieved his goal since he was able to reduce the initial 36 seconds of advantage to 16 following the stage. Along with him, he achieved his first 100 stage wins in his driving history. Another who tried to reduce the advantage of the leader was the Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who was 32 seconds behind the leader and with four stages to define at dawn on Sunday in Argentina.
The ones who didn’t have it all with them were the M-Sport team riders, since Pierre Louis Loubet had problems with his power steering, he ended up hitting a guardrail and the damage caused led him to abandon. His teammate Ott Tanak, with the same problem, lost his chances of fighting for the podium and is fifth, more than one minute and 30 seconds behind the leader.
For his part, in the RC2 division, the Russian Nicolay Gryazin (Skoda) ranks ninth overall and beats Yohan Rossel (Citroën) by 15s2/10 and Spanish Pepe López (Skoda) by 37s7/10.
Sunday’s stage
The epilogue of the 91st Monte Carlo Rally will take place on Sunday over four sections and 67.88 kilometres. The stages will be: PE 15 and PE 17, Lucerám-Lantosque (18.02 km) and PE 16 and PE 18, La Bollene-Vesubie-Col de Turini (15.12 km) and the Pöwer Stage with extra points to add.
General ranking: 1°) Sebastien Ogier (Toyota Yaris) 2h27m11s5/10, 2°) Kalle Rovanpera (Toyota Yaris) a 16 segundos, 3°) Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) a 32s, 4°) Elfyn Evans (Toyota Yaris) a 56s5/10 , 5°) Ott Tanak (Ford Puma) a 1m37s3/10, 6°) Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota Yaris) a 2m15s7/10, 7°) Daniel Sordo (Hyundai) a 3m08s8/10, 8°) Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) a 3m11s4/10, 9°) Nicolay Gryazin (Skoda) a 8m06s1/10 and 10°) Yohan Rossel (Citroën) a 8m21s3/10.
