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Elfyn Evans maintained his lead in Rallye Monte-Carlo after three ice-patched speed tests on Friday morning, but his team-mate Sébastien Ogier was hot on his heels.
Evans, steering a GR Yaris Rally1 car for Toyota Gazoo Racing, showcased dominance in Thursday’s night-time stages when he secured a 15.1secovernight lead. However, on the slippery mountain roads west of Gap, he couldn’t replicate the same performance.
A cautious run in the opener from Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes to La Bâtie-Neuve reduced Evans’ advantage to 5.3sec. His lead would have diminished further in SS4 if Thierry Neuville hadn’t spun his Hyundai i20 N on a patch of ice, losing 10sec.
But Ogier, a nine-time winner here, delivered a stellar performance in the final stage from La Bréole to Selonnet, going fastest by 11.2sec. That was enough for the Frenchman to overtake Neuville and secure second overall whilst also narrowing Evans’ lead to just 10.7sec before the repeated afternoon loop.
“It’s tricky,” admitted Evans. “[Conditions have] improved a bit, but it’s so bad where it is [icy] and then full grip where it’s not. For sure you can go faster, but it’s not easy.”
An icy section in SS3 caught out several frontrunners, with Ott Tänak, Takamoto Katsuta and Grégoire Munster needing spectator assistance to get out of a ditch.
Tänak lost around 40sec but, with Thursday’s throttle mapping issues resolved, he maintained fourth overall and trailed leader Evans by 1min 1.0sec. M-Sport Ford Puma hotshot Adrien Fourmaux, who posted the third-best time for SS5, was only 3.3sec behind.
Drama at the front allowed Andreas Mikkelsen to climb to sixth, though he lagged over two minutes behind the leader, citing a lack of confidence in his Hyundai.
“My gravel crew is going [through the stages] very early, and the information is not there or different,” explained Mikkelsen. “I stopped trusting the words and I’m just using my eyes.”
Munster ended the morning in seventh while Katsuta, following his ditch incident, plummeted down the leaderboard after losing more than five minutes.
WRC2 hopefuls Pepe López (Škoda Fabian RS), Nikolay Gryazin (Citroën C3) and Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3) completed the top 10.
Rallye Monte-CarloWRC
SEASON 2024SportRallies1SportWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2024Rallye Monte-Carlo01Friday, January 26, 2024 – 3:06pmFriday, January 26, 2024 – 3:06pm
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT’s Elfyn Evans made a perfect start by winning the duo of night stages which formed the opening leg in the mountain roads of the French Alps.
Last year’s WRC runner-up mastered the pair of stages held in dry conditions to build up a 15.1s lead over Hyundai rival Thierry Neuville.
It proved to be a challenging evening for Hyundai as all three of its entries suffered issues. Ott Tänak battled a throttle problem to end the loop in fourth (+22.8s), behind nine-time Monte Carlo winner Sébastien Ogier (+21.6s) in third.
Adrien Fourmaux impressed on his full-time Rally1 return with M-Sport to finish fifth (+39.0s) ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta (+46.3s), M-Sport’s Grégoire Munster (+1m06.0s) and Hyundai’s new recruit Andreas Mikkelsen (+1m08.8s).
Evans lit up the timing screens in the opening stage of the season, even if the Welshman was unsure if he had made the most of the grip on the dry asphalt.
The Toyota driver’s benchmark time on the 21.01km Thoard-St Geniez was more than enough to win the test.
Hyundai’s new signing Tänak came the closest to toppling Evans after posting a time 5.2s adrift. The Estonian did reveal at the stage end that he was battling a throttle issue.
Neuville was 3.1s slower than his new team-mate but was 1.5s faster than Ogier, who faced an increasingly dirty road surface from gravel being dragged onto the surface from cuts.
M-Sport’s Fourmaux delivered a strong effort to post the fifth quickest time, 16.2s adrift ahead of Toyota’s Katsuta and the second M-Sport Ford Puma driven by Munster.
Reigning WRC2 champion Mikkelsen rounded out the Rally1 runners some 32.9s shy of Evans. The Norwegian, making his top-flight WRC return for the first time since 2019, reported that he was battling with the engine mapping on is Hyundai i20 N.
Evans maintained his impressive start by winning stage two (Bayons-Breziers 25.19km) which was delayed. The test, held in front of a huge crowd, featured some damp patches.
Evans beat Neuville by 6.8s and the latter revealed he had a “small trouble” during his run. Tänak dropped to fourth overall after losing more time as a throttle issue on his Hyundai worsened.
Ogier was able to climb to third as a result of Tänak’s problem as the Frenchman posted the third fastest time, 11.8s adrift of his pacesetting Toyota team-mate.
In FIA WRC2, Škoda’s Pepe Lopez led the way while Sami Pajari was the best of the new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 runners sitting fourth in class behind Citroen duo Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel.
Six stages are on Friday’s itinerary, comprising a total distance of 105.72km.
Rallye Monte-CarloWRC
SEASON 2024FIARallies1FIAWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2024Rallye Monte-Carlo01Friday, January 26, 2024 – 12:44amFriday, January 26, 2024 – 12:44am