Ogier close to another success at Monte-Carlo

Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) was not trapped by the numerous difficulties still encountered in the first passage of the last stage of the Rally Montecarlo.

The five-time winner of the event passed the icy section of the Turini (SS14) without incident, even scoring the scratch, and narrowly avoided going off the road by being disrupted by a smoke bomb in La Cabanette – Col de Braus (SS15) to extend its lead over Ott Tänak (Toyota) more than 46 seconds behind while he took advantage of a gap of 33 seconds at the start of the stage.

The Toyota team remains united with Jari-Matti Latvala still holding on to his third place ahead of his teammate Esapekka Lappi. The second Finn from the Japanese manufacturer increased his lead over Kris Meeke (Citroën) to 13 seconds.

The fight is heating up for sixth place. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), author of the best time in SS15 and the second time in the first special of the day, came back to within nine seconds of the Ford Fiesta WRC by Elfyn Evans who had nevertheless opted for a mixture of studded and soft tires in anticipation of the icy passage of the Turini. The Belgian complained of not having been informed of the difficult conditions in this sector.

Bryan Bouffier (M-Sport) remains isolated in eighth place with more than three minutes ahead of Craig Breen (Citroën) which still leads the way in this stage. Jan Kopecky (Skoda) is still well established at the controls of WRC 2, completing the top ten in the general classification.

The second pass of the final stage of the Monte-Carlo Rally will be contested from 10:55 a.m. La Cabanette – Col de Braus will be used as a Power Stage.