Sébastien Loeb has sensationally grabbed the lead of the Monte Carlo Rally from Sébastien Ogier as the Toyota driver picked up a front-left puncture and dropped to 9.5 seconds behind.
Ogier had led Loeb by 24.6s ahead of the penultimate stage of the 2022 World Rally Championship’s season opener and was on course to lose a few seconds to Loeb as he didn’t need to push.
But as he neared the end of the stage, Ogier’s front-left tire began to lose rubber and he began to struggle more and more to get the car to turn.
The net result was he dropped 34.1s to Loeb, who won the stage to set up an epic climax to this year’s rally.
A shake of the head from reigning world champion Ogier as he crossed the finish line conveyed what needed to be said.
Despite all the drama, Craig Breen’s third place is looking secure however.
Although he won’t take maximum points from the weekend, if the M-Sport driver stays where he is he will effectively lead the title race as neither Loeb nor Ogier will be present on all the rounds this year.
Breen’s pace was conservative on SS16 as a result, with nothing to gain and everything to lose. He was sixth fastest.
Kalle Rovanperä was 8.9s faster than Breen but that did little to the overall classification as the Toyota driver is some 54.9s behind in fourth overall.
Gus Greensmith set an impressive second fastest time to cling onto fifth. Thierry Neuville is sixth while Takamoto Katsuta has now comfortably moved back inside the top 10 after spins earlier this weekend.
SS16 times
1 Sébastien Loeb/Isabelle Galmiche (M-Sport Ford) 11m21.0s
2 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +3.8s
3 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +8.9s
4 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +13.2s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +18.7s
6 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +22.1s
Leading positions after SS16
1 Loeb/Galmiche (M-Sport Ford) 2h51m50.0s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas (Toyota) +9.5s
3 Breen/Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +1m28.3s
4 Rovanperä/Halttunen (Toyota) +2m23.2s
5 Greensmith/Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +6m29.3s
6 Neuville/Waydaeghe (Hyundai) +7m47.0s
7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Škoda) +11m03.6s
8 Erik Cais/Petr Tesínský (M-Sport Ford) +11m47.4s
9 Katsuta/Johnston (Toyota) +12m23.0s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda) +12m49.0s
