The afternoon lap of the Friday stage of the Rallye Monte-Carlo restarted shortly after 3pm Italian time with the PS6, the 16.68 kilometer Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes / La Bâtie-Neuve 2. As happened in the morning, Thierry Neuville achieved the best time overall, taking his second stage success at the start of the season.
The Belgian driver stopped the time in 9'09″0, ahead of Sébastien Ogier by 1″6 and Elfyn Evans, his rivals for the victory of the event. Contrary to what happened this morning, all the drivers did not they had problems crossing the icy area of the stage (around kilometer 7.7), thus achieving better and closer times. Ott Tanak's fourth place at 5″6 is further proof of this.
Neuville, thanks to this special victory, is trying to mount a comeback which promises to be difficult, because he is more than 20 seconds behind his rivals. But with Ogier closing in on Evans, the Belgian from Hyundai Motorsport hopes to put further pressure not only on the Welshman, but also on Ogier.
Ott Tanak confirms himself as the fourth fastest rider in the race, even if the mistake that occurred this morning in the first pass on the Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes / La Bâtie-Neuve put him out of contention for the victory and the podium. By now, with his rivals in front too far away and those behind just as far away, the Estonian will try to obtain good results, ready to take advantage of any mistakes made by those in front of him.
Behind Tanak Takamoto Katsuta, Andreas Mikkelsen and Adrien Fourmaux were closed within 4 seconds, with the Japanese able to set the fifth fastest time ahead of the Norwegian from Hyundai Motorsport. Fourmaux appeared too cautious in managing the cuts, made dangerous by the dirt that had become muddy due to the melting of the ice in some parts of the asphalt and by the passage of the cars.
The fight for first place in WRC2 continues unabated, with Nikolay Gryazin who regained the top spot by 1″3 from Pepe Lopez. But be careful, because this morning the Spaniard changed gear in the remaining two tests and it is not excluded that he could try to replicate the same tactic this afternoon too. Yohan Rossel confirms himself as third wheel, 5″4 behind the category leader.
Oliver Solberg beats a blow by winning the Rally2 event. The TokSport Skoda team driver did better than all his colleagues, beating Gryazin by just 2 tenths of a second. However, this is an important reaction after a start to the race that was not as competitive as the Norwegian would have liked on the eve of the race.
#WRC #Rallye #MonteCarlo #SS6 #Neuville #attempts #comeback
