TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team driver Oliver Solberg continues to impressively lead Rallye Monte-Carlo ahead of his team-mates Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier after the longest day of the legendary event.
Car 99 (Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson)
Already out front by 44.2 seconds after a strong run through Thursday evening’s eventful opening stages, Solberg showed no letting off of the pace on Friday morning despite continued challenging conditions, with a mix of snow, ice, rain and mud on the road. He won the first stage of the loop by 19.1s, conceded 27.2s in the second following a loss of tyre pressure, and was fastest once more in the third stage by 8.8s to increase his lead back over one minute.
Solberg scored another stage win in the first stage of the second loop and ended the day with a lead of 1m08.4s.
Evans was quickest in the day’s second stage and remained second overall through the day. Third-placed Ogier won the last two stages of the day as darkness descended and he closed to within 6.5s of Evans.
Takamoto Katsuta experienced a tough day, picking up tyre damage in two of the morning’s stages and later sustaining damage to the power steering system following an impact in the afternoon’s opening stage. He is now 12th overall.
Sami Pajari returned under restart rules after sustaining damage in Thursday evening’s second stage, gaining valuable experience on his second Rallye Monte-Carlo start at the highest level.
TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto also continued to gather experience with a solid day in his GR Yaris Rally2, and sits ninth overall in the class.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“I’m really satisfied to still have a 1-2-3 after such a long and difficult day. Oliver has been sensational so far, and I honestly couldn’t have expected this kind of performance on this rally. He seems to be really relaxed and enjoying the driving, even in the very difficult conditions, and that’s helping to put him in this position. Still, we know the conditions will be difficult again tomorrow, so nothing is guaranteed yet. It’s also getting very close between Elfyn and Seb, who we know will not be giving up until the end of the rally, and I’m sure it will be another interesting day coming tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“We’ve had quite a lot of different conditions again today. It started off pretty icy in the first stage which was tricky, but we got through the morning loop pretty well without too much drama. The afternoon was then quite difficult; there was less ice and snow but more mud on the road and maybe I didn’t attack enough in the muddy cuts. We lost quite a bit of ground to Seb, who’s been doing a great job, so it’s close and exciting for tomorrow. With more difficult conditions to come, it looks like it will be a classic ‘Monte’ until the end.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“This morning was tricky again for us with the slush on the road. Today we had two cars making a line for us, but the road was evolving and improving a lot behind us. This afternoon the conditions changed and we managed to turn it around a bit. We didn’t have to go through any slush, but it was still very challenging with an incredible amount of mud on the road and a lot of water. It was probably getting worse for those behind and we could set some good times. It’s a nice fight now with Elfyn, and exciting for the rest of the rally.”
Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“It’s been another really incredible day and I’m very happy. The goal was to try and stay consistent and avoid problems. We did have one slow puncture but the rest has been really good. This afternoon was more about trying to survive. In the first one we could still be fastest, and then when it got dark it was a bit too risky to push. There was also a lot of mud being further back on the road, and having to do big cuts in those conditions for the first time with this car. So there’s still a lot of learning going on, and still a crazy long way to go.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today was a bit of a disaster for me unfortunately. This morning we had two punctures, and in the afternoon I was caught out by some slush and then hit a bank and we lost the power steering after that. It was a big job with so many hairpins, but I’ve been training a lot and we managed to get through the day. Still we have two days to go and I will try to reset and find some positives.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“After the disappointment of yesterday we just want to learn all that we can over the rest of the event. We’ll keep on trying things and maximise what we can. We had super tricky conditions today, with many difficult tyre choices in the different conditions – something I’ve pretty much never experienced before. Steadily the pace has been getting better, but of course there is still room to improve.”
End of day two (Friday):
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h11m13.1s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m08.4s
3 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m14.9s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +5m05.2s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +6m05.3s
6 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +7m18.8s
7 Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +7m42.1s
8 Léo Rossel/Guillaume Mercoiret (Citroën C3 Rally2) +8m27.5s
9 Eric Camilli/Thibault de la Haye (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m07.1s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale) +9m08.8s
12 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +10m00.8s
20 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +24m44.0s
(Results as of 20:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
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