Monte-Carlo: Ogier resists, Loeb gives in to Tänak

Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) retains the lead Rally Monte-Carlo facing Thierry Neuville, but his lead remains reduced since the Belgian is now 3”2 behind the leader of the event. The six-time winner of the event complained at the end of SS14 of a “small problem, the car is not 100%”, without wanting to say more. The reigning world champion will no longer benefit from assistance before the finish.

The duel between Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville could in any case lead to a new record since the narrowest gap at the finish at the Monte-Carlo Rally between the first two is 6s. It was during the 1979 edition when Bernard Darniche won in his Lancia Stratos HF of Team Chardonnet ahead of the Ford Escort ES 1800 MkII of Björn Waldegrad.

Ott Tänak (Toyota) poursuit sa remontée. En signant son 6e scratch consécutif, l’Estonien a repris Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai) pour s’emparer de la troisième place avec un peu moins de 3 secondes d’avance sur le nonuple champion WRC. The Alsatian also remains under pressure from Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) who is one second behind his i20 WRC.

Behind Kris Meeke (Toyota) isolated in 6th row, Gus Greensmith (Ford) keeps the lead of the WRC 2 Pro ahead of Yoann Bonato (Citroën), leader of the WRC 2 Pro, who is ahead of Stéphane Sarrazin (Hyundai). Adrien fourmaux (Ford) regained second place in WRC 2 following the crash of Guillaume de Mevius (Citroën) in SS14.

“It’s the end of the rally for us. We were too fast and we broke a suspension shaft. It wasn’t a big mistake, but the consequences are significant…”, commented the driver of the C3 R5.

That's the end of the rally for us
We were too quick and broke a suspension arm. Not a huge mistake but with big consequences… We're gutted.
Thanks for your support throughout the rally, it means the world to us.#WRC #RallyMonteCarlo pic.twitter.com/iaWbddksYC

— Guillaume de Mévius (@GuillaumeMevius) 27th January 2019

The second passage of the Monte-Carlo Rally stage should start from 10:55 a.m. The event can be followed live with our live text.