Monte-Carlo – Ogier new leader, Loeb hangs on

There's a new sheriff in town. The boss of this Monte-Carlo is now called Sébastien Ogier. Leader Thursday evening, ahead of Sébastien Loeb amazing on Friday, the Gapençais regained momentum this Saturday morning to shake up the general classification.

From the outset, the eight-time world champion took 3 seconds from his counterpart after setting the 4rd fastest time on SS3 on the Le Fugeret / Thorame-Haute section and came back 9 seconds behind. Getting off to a good start, Sébastien Ogier immediately followed up with the best time of SS6, taking 5 seconds from Sébastien Loeb to return to a perfect tie before the last start of the morning.

Dans une spéciale très piégeuse avec beaucoup de verglas notamment sur la première partie, le pilote Toyota maîtrisait son sujet et gardait son calme malgré quelques petites frayeurs. Alors que certains souffraient, lui fonçait tout droit vers son 2e temps scratch de la journée. Une performance qui lui permettait de prendre seul les commandes de ce Rally Monte-Carlo 2022 because at the same time Sébastien Loeb ranked 2nd at 5”4.

Back at the service park, Sébastien Ogier can take a deep breath before tackling the last two special stages of the day. Sébastien Loeb will work with his mechanics and engineers to try to come back to the charge in order to recover the leader's chair which eluded him by less than 2 seconds.

The two-way fight is becoming clearer than ever since Elfyn Evans made a mistake in the last sector of SS11. Third, less than 10 seconds from the lead, the Welshman got out and got stuck in the ravine without being able to leave. The 2021 world vice-champion loses big and especially his place on the provisional podium returned to Craig Breen. The Irishman, however, is not a threat to the two Sébastiens since he is more than a minute behind.

• Hyundai in the hard

At Hyundai the morning is to be forgotten. With a bold bet not to include any snow or studded tires, Thierry Neuville et Ott Tänak lost big, especially in the last special of this first loop. In great difficulty, the Belgian and the Estonian let precious time slip away during this outing. The two men are respectively in 4th and 7th place with 1'53 and 3'05 behind Sébastien Ogier. This Monte-Carlo is definitely not theirs.

As if that wasn't enough, Oliver Solberg had his accident. The Swede lost control of his i20 on SS10 and plunged into the ditch. Result ? Several minutes lost and a damaged car which he was still able to drive to the finish of the loop. He is currently 8th, more than 40 minutes behind.

In WRC2, the French suffered a lot. Leader after Friday, Stéphane Lefebvre lost any chance of victory in the Monaco classic. Penalized by 30 minutes due to an error by its openers, the Habs then had a big accident during SS10 which caused them to fall in the standings. In the running for success, Yohan Rossel received a 5-minute penalty for a delay in checking at the end of the special. Setbacks which affected Andreas Mikkelsen, now alone in the lead with more than a minute ahead of Marco Bulacia.

The Monte-Carlo will leave at 14:08 p.m. with a 2nd loop but of only 2 special stages. Visit AUTOhebdo to continue experiencing it in live text.

The complete general classification