To see Hyundai Motorsport’s first special success we had to wait for Special Stage 15 of the Rallye Monte-Carlo, the third from last, which will then be repeated at the end and will be valid as Power Stage.
Thierry Neuville, the only Hyundai driver left in the race after the retirement of Ott Tanak consumed yesterday and that of Oliver Solberg, which took place after the first test this morning, set the best time in Briançonnet / Entrevaux 1 of 14.26 kilometers.
The Belgian, really good at gritting his teeth in a weekend so far black for the team and studded with problems for him, stopped the clock in 8’50 “4, beating the race leader Sébastien Ogier by 1” 9.
But be careful, this result should not lead us to think that Hyundai has magically found the path to competitiveness. Many – including Neuville – have preferred to save tires in view of the Power Stage, so it is a passing test rather than a real competitive test.
In this test, however, Sébastien Ogier found a way to secure perhaps the victory, yet another at the Monte-Carlo Rally. Thanks to second place behind Neuville, the Toyota> Racing driver further increased his advantage over his only pursuer, Sébastien Loeb.
The M-Sport driver did not go beyond the fifth time, losing 6 “5 from Neuville and seeing his delay from Ogier increase to 24” 6 when there are just 2 special stages and about thirty timed kilometers before the end of hostilities.
Instead, everything happens in WRC2, with two punctures that made both Gregoire Munster and Yohan Rossel lose the Top 10. By virtue of these drawbacks, Nikolay Gryazin managed to climb to ninth place, while Takamoto Katsuta again gained the first two positions and, in the course of the next two tests, he will almost certainly recover another position against the Russian, who at the he is currently just 8 “2 ahead of Toyota’s Japanese.
WRC – Rallye Monte-Carlo 2022 – Ranking after SS15
Pos. | Pilot / navigator | Car | Time / posting | Penalty |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ogier / Veillas | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2h40’04 “4 | |
2 | Loeb / Galmiche | Ford Puma Rally1 | +24 “6 | |
3 | Breen / Nagle | Ford Puma Rally1 | + 1’30 “8 | |
4 | Rovanpera / Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 2’34 “6 | |
5 | Greensmith / Andersson | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | + 6’50 “1 | + 3’00 “ |
6 | Neuville / Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | + 7’52 “9 | +10 “ |
7 | Mikkelsen / Eriksen | Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | + 10’45 “7 | |
8 | Cais / Tesinsky | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | + 11’28 “7 | +10 “ |
9 | Gryazin / Aleksandrov | Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo | + 12’30 “5 | |
10 | Katsuta / Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 12’38 “7 |
#WRC #MonteCarlo #PS15 #Hyundai #ring #Neuville