Juho Hänninen leads Monte-Carlo

Winner of the IRC last season, Juho Hänninen occupies first place in the 2011 Monte-Carlo Rally after the first two special stages. More efficient than his rivals, the Skoda driver also benefited from a better choice of tires this morning.

Published on 19/01/2011 à 13:37

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On the Antraigues road (36 km), Stéphane Sarrazin (Peugeot ) and Juho Hänninen (Skoda) were ahead of the rest of the competitors by more than twenty seconds. But the duel was cut short in Burzet.

Starting with soft tires, the Peugeot driver had to contain his attack on roads that remained dry. Favoring a “medium” option, Juho Hänninen took advantage of the 41 kilometers of the second test to move to the top of the general classification by widening an already significant gap.

“I'm sure no one will go faster,” joked the Finn at the finish of SS2. “We have a really good car. Everything seems easy and I was able to ride at a good pace. »

Despite his poor performance in Burzet, Stéphane Sarrazin saved second place, 35??6 behind the leader. Behind the Peugeot driver, the gaps are quite small with Freddy Loix (Skoda), Petter Solberg (Peugeot), Guy Wilks (Peugeot) and Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot) in less than twenty seconds.

Highly anticipated, François Delecour (Peugeot) is currently in a good eighth position.

In contrast, the rally is already finished for Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda), Thierry Neuville (Peugeot) and Proton drivers Chris Atkinson and PG Andersson.