After the first three stages on Thursday evening and 50km’s gave a top three of Thierry, Elfyn and Seb.
First up then was SS4 Saint-Maurice / Aubessagne 1 – 18.68 km and Kalle was fastest from Greg and Sami. Of course, the leaders were quite different with Elfyn moving into the overall lead from Thierry who was leading at the start of the day and Seb holding third. Four seconds covered the top three.
Sadly, SS5 Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes / La Bâtie-Neuve 1 – 16.68 km was cancelled as there was a medical emergency with one of the spectators.
Next up then came SS6 La Bréole / Selonnet 1 – 18.31 km and with frost near the end of the stage it would be a very tricky end. However, three crews had trouble with moments in the stage. First was Thierry who went off the road at a right-hand hairpin. He’d broken the rear left suspension, and the tyre was dragging along the road. Next up Seb went wide on a left hander but didn’t lose too much time. However, Ott also had a moment as well and went off the road into a ditch on the right-hand side of the road. When he got to the end of the stage he discovered huge damage to the bodywork at the rear. There was a change to the standings behind Welshman Elfyn with Seb and Adrien both gaining a position each as they moved into second and third overall.
After the service break came SS7 Saint-Maurice / Aubessagne 2 – 18.68 km and Elfyn was fastest from Kalle and Thierry. Kalle gained two positions in this stage, moving ahead of Ott and Greg. It seemed that the two-time champion was finding some pace out there. There was 15.4 seconds covering the top three which remained Elfyn, Seb and Adrien.
Onto SS8 Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes / La Bâtie-Neuve 2 – 16.68 km and there was a change in positions at the front. Elfyn who was leading by 7.9 seconds at the start of the stage emerged 6.8 behind Seb at the end. The reason for this lay in the halfway point of the stage, around 10km’s as the Welshman had a spin at the exit of a right-hander which was very slippery with ice and snow. He and Scott had to reverse to reposition the car leading to the time loss. The top three fastest were Seb, Adrien and Thierry.
The final stage then, SS9 La Bréole / Selonnet 2 – 18.31 km and Seb was fastest from Adrien and Elfyn. There was more drama for Thierry as he went off the road again at the same corner as earlier. One of his front tyres had failed and he could not stop the car again. Once returned around, he completed the stage in road mode.
Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Saturday
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Sébastien Ogier
“It’s been a positive day, turning a 13s deficit into a 12s lead, but not everything has been perfect. I was struggling to find a rhythm in the morning and also in the first stage this afternoon, when I was not really driving close enough to the limit. I’m glad I managed to find that for the last two stages, and especially that I managed to win my home stage with a lot of family and friends watching. But we can’t relax yet, there’s still a long way to go and we have to continue in this way tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been tricky again out there today. This morning, the first stage was evolving with every car, and the last one of the loop was hard to judge also with the sun coming out and melting the ice that had been marked in our pacenotes. We had a pretty decent start to the afternoon, then in the middle stage a bit of a spin on the one full icy corner that we had, which cost us the lead. We lost a bit more on the last one too but it’s still not a huge gap and there’s a long way to go.”
Kalle Rovanperä
“For us it’s been a clean day with no drama, but overall, we were just not quick enough. In the morning the conditions were tricky, but it was going OK. The pace seems to be good when we’re on the snow or studded tyres, but I still need to find some more pace for when the road is cleaner and we’re on the slick tyres. Tomorrow it seems like the roads will be a bit drier so hopefully I can find some more speed.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“This afternoon was much better for me than the morning, when I was struggling to follow the information that was in my pacenotes. The route note crews went through the stages very early in the morning when there was a lot of black ice and frost, some of which had melted by the time we did the stages, so I found it hard to know how much grip to expect. In the afternoon it was easier, just a bit muddy and a few icy corners. There’s still interesting days to come and I just want to stay calm.”
Sami Pajari
“It’s been a really tricky day. Some stages were really good and some split times really good. We were also trying some different tyre combinations just for the experience. I can see many places where I can improve, but my mindset is to be clean and build up the confidence and knowledge step-by-step and then increase our pace. In this sense everything is still going to plan even though I would like to be a bit quicker. Tomorrow the conditions could be easier for us but we need to see how it is in the morning.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Adrien Fourmaux
“It’s been a really good day. We didn’t make any mistakes with the tyres, we had really good pace and we made it to third in the provisional classification. There’s still a long rally ahead, but we are really pleased with what we have achieved so far. I think every driver wants to win here, although it is not my target, but we will keep this pace and see where we are. As a team today has been quite a shame, but it’s positive for us so we will see what happens. Tomorrow will be a new challenge, but we are confident that we can keep a good pace – nothing is impossible at Rallye Monte-Carlo.”
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Ott Tänak
“It’s been a demanding day; lots of condition changes, even from first loop to second loop you don’t really recognise the conditions. We have seen more or less everything today – from dry tarmac to black ice. The contrast is huge between the grip levels we had on the same stage, so in the end we just had to go with the information we had, trust it and go for it. This afternoon was a bit of a struggle to get into the rhythm. Before the last stage we balanced some settings on the car, and after that it behaved a bit better. Now we need to get back into the faster rhythm. We need to see what’s coming tomorrow, and we are still not sure what is waiting for us.”
Thierry Neuville
“Today was a day to forget, I made a mistake this morning and misjudged the braking with these studded tyres. The target this afternoon was to see if we could gain back a bit of time this afternoon, maybe a position or two, and then unfortunately we had a puncture three kilometres into the same stage. We don’t know these tyres very well, but we decided to continue with the puncture and the tyre went in a braking zone. I am disappointed with the one mistake this morning, but a puncture can happen to anybody. We made some changes overnight for the day and I couldn’t find the confidence I needed all day. We’ll go back to the setup we used Thursday evening and see if we feel more comfortable.”
Saturday’s stages.
Saturday sees the longest day of action with 120km’s over six stages and the longest stage of the whole weekend is the first stage of the day. At 27km the crews will need to be ready for this. Who knows what it has in store!
