EVANS HOLDS OFF DAY 2 OGIER CHARGE IN MONTE CARLO

27 Jan

January 27th, 2024

Elfyn Evans holds onto his Rally Monte Carlo at the end of the second day, but teammate Sebastien Ogier is closing in on the Welshman, as the margin sits at 8.6 seconds entering into Day 3.

The Toyota duo lead the field at the end of the second day of stages, but Thierry Neuville remains within striking distance of the two ahead, with only 16 seconds separating the podium. Ott Tanak after his mistake earlier in the day recovered to fourth with a gap to Adrian Fourmoux half a minute behind rounding out the Top 5.

The morning loop of stages saw Ott Tanak and Takamoto Katsuta fall victim to the slippery conditions as icy spaces plagued the stages in various locations. Tanak managed to get help from the local crowd and recover to stay fourth by the end of the loop. Katsuta on the other hand wasn’t so lucky as the Japanese driver made the same mistake but got stuck in the snow ditch, dissolving all hopes of a possible Monte Carlo Podium. Katsuta will now aim to focus on fighting back to the top 10 in the rally and collect the extra points now available on Sunday.

”Conditions have improved…, I’m not fighting for anything at the moment, just get through the stages at an OK pace, But I’m focusing on Sunday,” said Katsuta at the end of SS6.

Sebastian Ogier set out to chase his Toyota Teammate Elfyn Evans for the rally lead as the nine-time winner caught 12 seconds over the opening three stages on the Englishman before stalling out in the afternoon loop and settling into second place. Ogier will recharge into Saturday and make most of the track advantage he’ll have over Evans if the next stages involve lots of cuts.

Thierry Neuville kept flying the Hyundai flag despite dropping to third overall and 24 seconds off the lead after the morning stages but held a comfortable 30-second bridge to his teammate Tanak before the final three stages of the day commenced. The third Hyundai of Andreas Mikkelsen was able to recover some places despite a slow start Thursday evening that saw the Norwegian struggling with the Hyundai’s engine mapping. Mikkelsen wasn’t able to replicate his teammate’s pace but managed to cover the two M-Sport Pumas.

Adrian Fourmoux continued the M-Sport charge, only finishing the morning loop a handful of seconds behind 2019 Champion of Tanak after the Estonian’s mistake, but highlighted the maturity of the young Frenchman that kept keeping his Ford Puma in one piece and staying ahead of Mikkelsen. Gregoire Munster stayed a stable seventh overall, nearly two and a half minutes off the lead but didn’t feel as comfortable on the Supersoft compound in the conditions.

The Battle in WRC2 continued to heat up with the top three of Lopez, Gryazin and Rossel separated by five seconds after the opening five stages of the rally. This saw all three competitors pushing to the limit as the lead continued to change between each stage.

The Toyota Yaris resumed its solid debut with Sami Pajari behind the wheel remaining despite falling to fifth in class behind Oliver Solberg. The Swede despite not being allocated to score points in Monte Carlo persisted in climbing up the leaderboard halfway through the second day of the event.

As the Afternoon loop finished, Gryazin managed to squeeze out a slender one-second margin over Lopez as Rossel looms in the shadow a mere six seconds off the lead. The Trio have remained a class above with Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari unable to make an indent on the margin.

Day Three of Rally Monte Carlo will begin at SS9 at approximately 8 am local time / 6 pm AEDT.