LAST GASP NEUVILLE STEALS RALLY LEAD HEADED TO FINAL DAY

28 Jan

January 28th, 2024

Thierry Neuville has won the opening points of the World Rally Championship season as the Belgian fought back to take the rally lead after a near-perfect performance in the final stage of Saturday. Should Neuville finish the rally tomorrow, he’ll collect the 18 points as Ogier (15 points) and Evans (13 points) round out the Top 3 on Saturday evening.

Thierry Neuville started his pursuit of the rally lead early as he won the opening stage of the day, jumping nine-time event winner Sebastien Ogier after the Frenchman stayed more reserved through the opening loop, remaining third overall. The Belgian continued his hot pace as Elfyn Evans' early event speed faded, seeing Neuville claiming the lead of the rally in Stage 10.

Ogier was the driver to chase at the start of the afternoon stages as the 40-year-old gained over five seconds back on Neuville as the pair fought for the first points of the year. Despite the Belgian losing the rally lead on the second stage of the afternoon loop to Ogier, Neuville put in the stage of the rally so far, beating Ogier by three seconds to take the lead heading into Sunday.

“We did a good stage, it was perfection, everything went well I really enjoyed the car it was incredible,“ said Neuville after winning the final stage of the day.

Sebastien Ogier began the third day of Rally Monte Carlo from second overall but was immediately eclipsed by flying Neuville in the morning loop that featured mixed conditions. The second loop of stages saw the nine-time Monte winner shine as he caught Neuville to take the lead in Stage 13, claiming a landmark 700th career stage win in the World Rally Championship.

The feat sees Ogier pass the legendary Finn of Juha Kankkunen on the all-time list in WRC history. The Toyota driver wasn’t able to match the amazing pace of Neuville in the final stage and dropped to second, confirming themselves to at least 15 points for the rally.

“I did a good stage, looks like we’ll need to try harder tomorrow, “ said a disappointed Ogier after Stage 14.

The third day of Rally Monte Carlo provided the first slippery challenge for the crews as Andrea Mikkelsen had an awkward spin, dropping the Norwegian to seventh overall as M-Sport Puma of Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka jumped the Hyundai.

Takamoto Katsuta after his spin early on Day 2 returned to the Top 10 in the overall event standings after the Japanese driver started to get his confidence back behind the wheel of the Rally1 Yaris. By the end of the penultimate day, Katsuta worked his way to seventh to get four points on the board ahead of Sunday’s additional points available to the drivers in 2024.

As the afternoon stages resumed, the conditions drastically warmed up leading to all Rally1 runners once again using soft tyres from their bank with all icy and damp sections evaporated on the road. SS12 caught out rookie Gregoire Munster just past the six-kilometre mark into the opening stage of the loop after gravel on the apex of a slow sweeper sent the Puma into a steel-enforced wooden fence, leaving it wedged on the edge of the road and cliffside. Munster and Co-driver Louis Louka were unable to get the car moving under their own power, dropping them out of sixth position overall.

Elfyn Evans started the loop in second place but immediately dropped to third as the Welshman couldn't match the pace of the two drivers ahead, dropping 17 seconds in the first stage alone along with a further seven seconds in the penultimate stage of the day.

”I’m surprised it is so bad, it’s chronic … there was nothing that bad,” said Evans after SS12.

In WRC2, Gryazin resumed his rally lead after fightback in the final stage despite coming under assault throughout the day from Pepe Lopez in the Sokda R5. Lopez was able to take the rally lead back at the beginning of the afternoon loop with the two Citreons of Nikolay Grayzin and Yohan Russel close behind.

As the Afternoon loop began, Lopez struck the first blow stealing the class lead back after he gained over 11 seconds on Gryazin as the Bulgarian struggled with overheating tyres and lack of grip. Yohan Russel in the second Citreon also gained on teammate Gryazin, managing to stick close with the battle for the class lead.

By the final stage of the day, Gryazin changed the set-up on his Citreon to be more aggressive, the risk paying off as the Bulgarian stole the rally lead off Pepe Lopez after the Spaniard struggled in the final kilometres of the day. Gryazin will take a 0.2-second lead over Lopez as four stages remain in Rally Monte Carlo.

Yohan Russel remains in the battle for the class win, as the Frenchman a mere seven seconds behind the front two after sweeping the final two stages of the day.

The final day of Monte Carlo running will go down to the wire, running starts from SS15 at 7 am local time, 5 pm AEDT.