The Rallye Monte-Carlo restarted this morning with the PS3, the Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes / La Bâtie-Neuve 1 of 16.68 kilometres, finally presenting real conditions that the Principality rally usually offers, i.e. dry, wet asphalt and, in some sections, icy, which caused a serious crisis for several pilots, even among the most experienced.
Thierry Neuville came out on top. The Belgian Hyundai Motorsport driver put in a great performance in 9'18″3, recovering 5″3 from the event leader Elfyn Evans. Neuville, who entered the special second, had only one moment of worry when at kilometer 7.7 of the test he ended up slightly wide on a sheet of ice, the same one that created enormous problems for Ott Tanak, Takamoto Katsuta and Gregoire Munster.
Neuville thus gave the first special victory of the year to Hyundai Motorsport, also recovering several seconds from Evans and taking himself under 10 seconds behind the Welshman of Toyota Racing.
Sébastien Ogier signed the third time, passing unscathed in the most difficult section of the test – the one on ice – thanks to his great talent and knowledge of the roads, but he paid for more than 6 seconds of delay from Neuville due to the dirt brought onto the road by the cuts made by pilots who entered the internship before him.
The first three in the test were within 6″6, while from fourth place onwards the gaps were significant. Adrien Fourmaux did well to get fourth place, but found himself finishing 22″ behind. 5 from the Belgian. Andreas Mikkelsen did a few seconds worse (4.8 worse).
Ott Tanak was the first driver to be hit by the ice at kilometer 7.7. The Estonian, like Neuville, slid towards the outside, but after touching a snow bank on the outside of the road with the rear, he turned the car, pointing the nose at a ditch, and remained stuck. Only thanks to the intervention of the spectators present at that point did he avoid being forced to retire.
The 2019 world champion finished 41.9 seconds behind Neuville, while Takamoto Katsuta ended up in a ditch a few meters ahead of Tanak, but with the entire left side of the car. It took the public much longer to recover the GR Yaris Rally1, so the Japanese lost more than 5 minutes to the best. At the same point Gregoire Munster exited, but the Dutch lost only a minute.
As for the Rally2 cars, a sensational start for Oliver Solberg who exalted himself on the slippery asphalt, beating Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel. Pepe Lopez, however, was not as incisive as in yesterday's two night tests, taking fifth place behind Stéphane Lefebvre in the first Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
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