Rallye Monte Carlo, Seb Ogier leads after day one.

First stage of the event and there was lots of drama in the Thoard – Sisteron 36km opener! There was no snow and ice in the first 12km and then broken ice for a couple of km’s.

Seb Ogier was first in, and spun in the stage! Ott stopped 11km into stage, but got going again and Thierry was another to stop, but got going again as well. Both had slid wide into snow banks. Another to spin was Jari-Matti and he managed to spin twice! Elfyn picked up a puncture at about 12km into the stage, so they had to change the tyre. The Citroen duo of Kris and Craig both spun as well, Kris losing a minute or so.

 

Esapekka completed the stage third fastest, with a good run though, whilst Andreas was the closest challenger to Ogier, just 7.7 seconds off the Fiesta WRC pilot!

 

1^st    Ogier      23’16”6

2^nd   Mikkelsen  + 7”7

3^rd   Lappi         + 19”4

4^th   Sordo        + 19”7

5^th   Breen        + 24”6

6^th   Tänak        + 37”9

7^th   Latvala      + 48”9

8^th   Bouffier + 1’15”6

9^th   Camilli    + 1’43”3

10^th Meeke   + 1’44”7

 

Stage two, Bayons – Breziers 25,49km stage which includes a rise of 1184 metres above sea-level to the summit of Col de Sagnes! Ogier won the stage with a very good clean run through with Thierry going second fastest and Ott third. There were a few changes in the leaderboard with Dani moving ahead of Esapekka and into third. Kris and Thierry are a long way off the lead sadly, over two minutes away for the Citroen pilot and over four for the Belgian. That’s a big ask for them.

Classification after Day One

1              S. Ogier J. Ingrassia                          Ford Fiesta WRC                           38:09.8

2              A. Mikkelsen      A. Jæger               Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC                +17.3

3              D. Sordo               C. del Barrio        Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC                +25.6

4              E. Lappi                 J. Ferm                  Toyota Yaris WRC                               +37.4

5              O. Tänak               M. Järveoja          Toyota Yaris WRC                               +42.4

6              J. M. Latvala        M. Anttila             Toyota Yaris WRC                              +55.4

7              C. Breen               S. Martin                Citroën C3 WRC                             +1:02.3

8              B. Bouffier          X. Panseri             Ford Fiesta WRC                             +1:51.0

9              K. Meeke            P. Nagle                  Citroën C3 WRC                              +2:12.7

10           E. Camilli              B. Veillas               Ford Fiesta R5                                  +2:42.2

17           T. Neuville           N. Gilsoul               Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC           +4:18.2

 

What will happen tomorrow?  There are six stages and 144.88 km’s of action!