Thierry Neuville has opened the history book, picked up his pen and started writing. Only tomorrow will his work be marked and confirmed as an acceptable entry or not.
With one day still to run on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, Hyundai’s Belgian star has already banked 18 points courtesy of the series’ all-new point-scoring system.
The new structure, ratified by the World Motor Sport Council last month, rewards the crew and manufacturer leading the overall classification on Saturday night with 18 points. On the first Saturday of the season, that is Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe and Hyundai Motorsport.
Those points are pending; all they have to do now is reach the final control in Monte Carlo on Sunday afternoon.
Neuville's off to a great start – but like going to church, it's all about Sunday
Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier has a provisional 15 points after completing Saturday 3.3 seconds adrift of Neuville, while early Monte leader Elfyn Evans has 13 points in the bank of he makes the finish.
Now for the strategy. Fourth-placed Ott Tänak has bided his time for the last day and a half, dutifully running a compromised tire choice in order to challenge with five or six of the preferred brand-new soft tires on Sunday.
Hyundai’s Estonian star has 10 points for fourth, but that could increase to 22 if he’s fastest across Sunday’s three stages and lands a powerstage scratch time. If Tänak manages the perfect final day, the best his team-mate Neuville could hope for would be 10 points from Sunday – meaning he would depart round one with 28 points.
Tänak, in fourth place, still has a chance to score more than 20 points on the Monte. That wasn't possible with the old system; 17 would have been the ceiling
Grégoire Munster is the only P1 driver to run under superrally regulations, but the M-Sport star could still land 12 points from a Sunday ‘win’ and powerstage maximum.
This time tomorrow, WRC history will have been written, with the first driver, co-driver and manufacturer to score non-powerstage points before the end of the rally. Don’t forget, powerstage points were ‘awarded’ on the opening stage of the 2013 Rally de France – again the crews had to register in Sunday’s final classification to claim them.
