Elfyn Evans has taken an early lead on the Monte Carlo Rally, taking advantage of optimal tire strategy and running first on the road to build a 15.1s advantage after only two stages.
Evans had feared on the first stage that he hadn’t used all the grip available – but those fears were swiftly allayed by being 5.2s faster than anyone else.
Toyota’s de facto team leader had the optimal tire strategy, running a full set of softs throughout the loop as others compromised and used at least one supersoft tire on each stage.
Pirelli’s supersoft compound was on paper the inferior slick tire for the conditions, due to uncharacteristically high temperatures of up to 17°C (63°F) up in the mountains – with zero snow or ice in sight.
Tänak and Neuville were still second and third fastest on Thoard / Saint-Geniez respectively but dropped back on the second test, Bayons / Bréziers.
Some minor commotion in the cockpit of Neuville’s i20 N Rally1 suggested something was also amiss in his car – but he was coy on what exactly what was wrong.
“It was OK but I had some small trouble in the stage so I needed to be careful,” he said. But when asked what the trouble was, he would only say: “We’ll see.”
Neuville still gained a place despite his woes to sit second overnight, 15.1s off the lead, ahead of nine-time Monte winner Sébastien Ogier.
Neuville is still second overall despite managing an issue
Expectations are high for an unprecedented 10th Monte win from the Gap native. But Ogier was left complaining that his road position meant the roads were dirty, covered in gravel, and it was compromising his speed relative to those starting ahead.
“Seems to be difficult for us,” commented Ogier. “We expected that a bit with this condition. It’s obviously better to be in the front. But we had a decent run.
“The road is very dirty very quickly, so we do what we can.”
Tänak dropped behind both his team-mate and Ogier on the second stage into fourth place, struggling in the latter part of stage two as complained of trouble with this throttle.
Tänak's return to Hyundai must feel a bit similar to the end of his last stint, with car problems blighting his i20 N Rally1
“It’s got really bad now,” said Tänak, “so to be honest, very happy to be here. Incredible what this thing is doing at the moment.”
Only 1.2s seconds separate Ogier and Tänak in the battle for third, while Adrien Fourmaux leads M-Sport’s charge in fifth place, 39s off the lead.
“There was a lot of mud etc and it goes in the middle of the corner,” he said. “I was struggling to find the feeling but it’s OK.”
Takamoto Katsuta splits the M-Sport Fords in sixth place, 7.3s behind Fourmaux and 19.7s up on Grégoire Munster in seventh.
Mikkelsen's return to Rally1 is not going to plan
Andreas Mikkelsen made it three out of three Hyundais with technical gremlins, having suffered through both night-time stages with a mapping problem on his i20.
That sapped his confidence and left him the slowest of the factory Rally1 drivers in eighth place, 1m08.8s behind Evans.
“Suddenly the car stalled on the start line before I was supposed to start,” Mikkelsen explained.
“Engine revs went down, car stopped, and then it’s still accelerating on the entry of the corners, so I can never trust it. So then I’m very reserved.”
Pepe López was flying on the opening day
Pepe López stormed into the lead of WRC2, conquering the opening stage by a whopping 9.2s from the chasing pack.
The three-time Spanish Superchampionship title-winner extended that lead further to 14.2s ahead of Nikolay Gryazin, with his Citroën team-mate and incumbent Monte WRC2 winner Yohan Rossel completing the podium places, 19.9s off the top spot.
