TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team driver Sébastien Ogier increased his Rallye Monte-Carlo lead on the penultimate day of the legendary event as Elfyn Evans remained at the head of a close battle behind.
A loop of three stages to the west of the Gap service park was run twice to form 120.66 competitive kilometres and the longest day of the rally. Conditions were drier and warmer than on previous days, but the twisting mountain roads of the French Alps still provide considerable challenges whatever the weather, especially with mud and gravel being dragged onto the road by each passing car.
Ogier led by 12.6s over Evans coming into the day, and with the overall standings being reversed to form the road order, the pair faced dirtier conditions than their rivals. Still, Ogier came within 0.8s of winning the morning’s first stage – the longest of the rally at 27km – as he increased his lead.
The top three closed up once more in the all-new Aucelon – Recoubeau-Jansac stage that followed, with Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) moving ahead of Evans into second place. Evans responded at the start of the afternoon to retake the position, only for his rival to gain the upper hand again on a dirty second pass of the stage to Recoubeau-Jansac, but Evans excelled in the fading light of the day’s final test to finish up in front.
Targeting a record-extending 10th Rallye Monte-Carlo win, Ogier’s lead stands at 20.3s ahead of his team-mate. Evans is 4.3s ahead of Fourmaux with Ott Tänak (Hyundai) also joining the podium fight a further 2.5s back.
Kalle Rovanperä continues to look for an improved feeling in fifth overall ahead of Takamoto Katsuta, who was a strong third-fastest across the day with a stage win in SS12. Sami Pajari is one place further back in seventh as he adds to his experience on his first Rallye Monte-Carlo in Rally1 machinery.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s been another good day today, we can be very happy. There was not so much ice out there today but there was a lot of dirt coming to the road, making it difficult to judge the grip levels. All our drivers have been doing a good job and making improvements, starting with the big steps we’ve seen from Sami and from Taka. Kalle had some very good splits and was struggling in the more twisty places but he knows the season is long and he just needs to take points, so he’s doing a clever job. Then it’s been a big fight at the front, with Seb handling his lead very well and Elfyn fighting very hard with Fourmaux and Tänak and managing to hold onto second position. Tomorrow it looks like it might be raining heavily, maybe even snowing, so we need to be prepared for everything and nothing is secured at this point.”Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Overall I’m pretty happy with the day and we’re still in a pretty good position tonight. We had some very mixed conditions out there with a lot of pollution on the stages, and our performance was a bit mixed with it. We pushed when we felt good and maybe took a little bit too much caution at other times. I was pretty happy with the last stage of the day, to not lose too much time to Ott and to take back second from Adrien, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow: we don’t know fully what to expect, but we could be facing some quite difficult conditions.”Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It was still quite a challenging day today. Some stages and some sections were pretty good and then we were just losing a bit too much time in other places. I was just not feeling completely confident, so it was still a difficult day. With the team we’re trying to change some small things and at least we still have tomorrow, when we can try something new and see how it’s going. We’ll try to do our best of course and hopefully get some extra points.”Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“Again it was not an easy day. Some sections were fun to drive and others were tricky, especially at the end of the day when it was getting dark and I had some little moments on the mud, so I’m glad to have this day behind me and that we could increase the gap a little bit. The gap is not a comfortable one but it’s still a positive one to take into the last day. Like usual it will be difficult until the end because the weather tonight looks unpredictable so we need to make the right tyre choice and stay focused.”Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It was a very good and positive day for me. Last night with the team we changed some things in the setup and today I felt a much better feeling with the car, so I was able to push more. I was able to go much quicker than yesterday and we set some good times, which was giving me better confidence. Tomorrow will be quite a big day and the weather could be very interesting. I will try to do my best to take some points.”Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Today we did a clear step forwards and I had a much nicer and more enjoyable feeling. We didn’t really change the plan but the feeling was getting better and also the times were nicer, so that made it more enjoyable also. We can see that we just need some time and experience and the times get better. From what we’re hearing, the conditions tomorrow could be even more challenging so it could be another different and difficult day ahead.”
End of day three (Saturday):
- Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h42m48.2s
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +20.3s
- Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +24.6s
- Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +27.1s
- Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +55.0s
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m43.7s
- Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +4m09.9s
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +5m17.5s
- Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +8m25.4s
- Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m33.0s
(Results as of 18:00 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
Sunday’s final leg begins from Gap with a repeat of two stages previously run on Thursday evening. These precede the rally-ending Power Stage which takes in the iconic Col de Turini, before a return to Monaco for the podium. In addition to the battle for overall positions and points, up to five further points are available for the separate Super Sunday classification plus another five points from the Power Stage.
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