Sébastien Loeb and Isabelle Galmiche finished in the lead the first stage of the Rallye Monte-Carlo, the first round of the WRC 2022. The French crew of M-Sport Ford made perfect use of today’s first 4 tests to build an excellent advantage over the rivals and, thanks to that, managed to stay in the lead at the end of the day.
In today’s last test, Special Stage 8 Val-de-Chalvagne / Entrevaus 2 of 17.11 kilometers, Sébastien Ogier returned to win a test after having done 2 out of 2 yesterday night. Thanks to this result he overtook his teammate Elfyn Evans in the overall standings and returned to second position.
Loeb, on the other hand, preferred not to take risks. He entered the test last among Rally1 and this meant that the lower and lower temperatures made the asphalt much more icy and treacherous, especially in the last part of the test.
There are 9 “9 between Loeb and Ogier and tomorrow they will face 5 mid-day special stages without Service. Evans, as mentioned, has lost the second position and is now 12” 1 behind Toyota’s 8-time world champion. Behind him the opponents are quite far away, so the podium is not in danger for now, but Thierry Neuville seems to be in full recovery.
After the difficulties he had yesterday evening and today morning, the Belgian from Hyundai found better set-up solutions than yesterday so as to sign second place in the PS8 and recover 10 “right on Evans. there are 25 “8, therefore still many, but between two of the main contenders for the title the fight could be more open than one might think.
Ott Tanak managed to enter the Top 5 right in PS8, today’s latest, taking advantage of a colorless test by Craig Breen at the wheel of the second Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid EcoBoost. The Northern Irishman, after a promising morning, struggled in the three afternoon tests so as to drop from fourth to seventh place, overtaken by both Hyundai Motorsport drivers.
Gus Greensmith, on the other hand, is very good. The Briton won the first special stage of his WRC career, the PS7, and impressed with his pace and driving quality. In some situations he was too cautious, perhaps for fear of making mistakes similar to the one that forced Adrien Fourmaux to retire, but his day is positive.
The three drivers most in difficulty of the day were undoubtedly Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta of Toyota Racing, but also Oliver Solberg, this year among the officials of Hyundai Motorsport. The three, it is right to underline it, need experience at Monte, but the effort with which they are adapting to the use of the hybrid, especially the Finn, has impressed.
As for WRC2, the change at the top took place in PS8 with Stéphane Lefebvre who overtook the reigning world champion Andreas Mikkelsen right on the wire. Lefebvre was the author of a great final test, recovering more than 8 seconds against the Norwegian of the TokSport team. Now between the two there is just 1 “4 in favor of the French driver at the wheel of a Citroen C3 Rally2. Third place instead for another French driver at the wheel of a Citroen, Yohan Rossel, 19” 1 behind Lefebvre.
The first full day of racing at Rallye Monte-Carlo 2022 ends here. the opening event of the new WRC season will resume with the PS9, the 16,80km Le Fugeret / Thorame-Haute. The first car will enter testing at 08:17 Italian time.
WRC – Rallye Monte-Carlo 2022 – Ranking after PS8
Pos. | Pilot / navigator | Car | Time / posting |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Loeb / Galmiche | Ford Puma Rally1 | 1h22’49 “0 |
2 | Ogier / Veillas | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +9 “9 |
3 | Evans / Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +22 “0 |
4 | Neuville / Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +47 “8 |
5 | Tanak / Jarveoja | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +56 “7 |
6 | Breen / Nagle | Ford Puma Rally1 | +59 “2 |
7 | Greensmith / Andersson | Ford Puma Rally1 | + 1’08 “4 |
8 | Katsuta / Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 1’35 “9 |
9 | Rovanpera / Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | + 2’12 “8 |
10 | Solberg / Edmondson | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | + 2’22 “9 |
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