Thierry Neuville falls in Monte-Carlo

While Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) had a comfortable lead at the top of the Rally Monte-Carlo, the Belgian lost his lead by stopping in the last special of the 3rd stage, the 25,49km Bayons – Bréziers. If a puncture was once suspected, it was in reality a damaged suspension which was the cause of his disappointment.

The i20 driver WRC was able to reach the finish after losing 32 minutes. He had to try to reach the finish of the course to avoid definitive abandonment, Rally 2 not being in effect for the last stage.

“It happened on a slow left turn. I lost the car on the way out and we hit something going off the road”, explained the Hyundai driver.

Sébastien Ogier (Ford) thus regains control of the event with a lead of 47 seconds over Ott Tänak. The Frenchman and the Estonian seem well on their way to offering a double to M-Sport who has been chasing victory since 2012, even if 4 special stages are still on the program for the final day.

“I’m sorry about Neuville. He had a superb rally, being incredibly fast. We got lucky and made a few small mistakes. We need margin in Monte-Carlo”, commented the new leader.

Jari-Matti Latvala thus places his Toyota Yaris WRC on the provisional podium with more than a minute ahead of Craig Breen. The DS 3 WRC driver regained the advantage over Dani Sordo who lost his power steering and who will have to work this Sunday to regain the 16 seconds that separate him from the Irishman.

Elfyn Evans (Ford), author of a 3rd scratch in SS13, moved up to 6th position even though he was still more than 3 minutes behind the Spaniard.

The Welshman precedes Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda), still the leader of WRC 2 ahead of Jan Kopecky (Skoda), Bryan Bouffier (Ford), Éric Camilli (Ford) and Quentin Gilbert (Ford). In RGT, it is now Romain Dumas on his Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0l which leads the category after François Delecour (Fiat Abarth 124) retired due to a broken differential.

The final stage will be made up of two special stages covered twice spread over 54km timed. The crews will embark on the 5,56km from Luceram – Col St Roch from 9:22 a.m.