Thierry Neuville stormed into the lead of Rallye Monte-Carlo to overhaul Sébastien Ogier after Thursday’s action, setting a time 25.5 seconds quicker than anyone else on the rally’s second stage.
Neville began the Bayons – Bréziers test 6.4s behind early leader Ogier in fourth overall but vaulted into the rally lead after a scorching run on the 15.8-mile second stage.
The Hyundai driver heads into Friday’s stages with a 19.1s lead over Ogier, with his new team-mate Ott Tänak 25.1s back in third.
“[They were] very, very tricky conditions to be honest,” Neuville summarised. “I was trying to read the road as good as I could. I am happy with my tyre choice and I think we had a good time.”
Despite shipping over 20s to Neuville, Toyota pilot Ogier took a philosophical overview of his SS2 performance: “We didn’t take so much risk and we could’ve been faster, but the rally is still very long.”
World champion Tänak appeared to struggle through the treacherous stage that featured several icy sections, and tip-toed through the “crazy, crazy stage.” But aside from an overly ambitious approach into a hairpin, Hyundai’s newest recruit made it through unscathed.
“Let’s say I’m happy to be alive!” Tänak, who is six seconds behind Ogier, said afterwards. “[It was] much more of a challenge than I anticipated.”
Elfyn Evans slipped from third to fourth on Bayons – Bréziers courtesy of Neuville’s surge but remains just 0.3s behind Tänak on his first evening at the wheel of a Toyota Yaris WRC.
The Welshman, along with team-mates Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta, fitted studded tyres that should have given him an advantage.
“In some places for sure [they helped] but in other places for sure it hampered us a lot as well, he said. “It was quite an imbalance. Maybe we should’ve been faster, I don’t know.”
Seven-time Monte-Carlo winner Sébastien Loeb is 25.4s behind Evans in fifth place, already 51s shy of team-mate Neuville’s lead. He heads Esapekka Lappi by 16.8s.
In stark contrast to his giddy demeanour after Wednesday’s shakedown stage, Lappi cut a dejected figure at the end of Thursday.
But after the water temperature issues on SS1, Lappi at least had a clean SS2 run – unlike team-mate Teemu Suninen. Suninen’s Fiesta ground to a halt less than halfway through Bayons – Bréziers with a transmission failure and retired for the leg.
The third M-Sport Ford of Gus Greensmith was also in the wars. The Brit’s Fiesta WRC cut out momentarily at a square left corner and took a few seconds to restart as it encountered turbo problems. Greensmith confirmed at the end of the stage: “[We] lost all power. It wouldn’t go above 50km/h.”
Toyota’s Rovanperä meanwhile slipped behind both Loeb and Lappi on SS2 after taking a “really safe” approach as he “had no idea what to expect” on just his second stage in a WRC car.
Eric Camilli is eighth overall and continues to head WRC3 ahead of new WRC2 leader Mads Ostberg. M-Sport driver Adrien Fourmaux had led WRC2 after SS1 but dropped over three minutes to Ostberg throughout the stage due to a puncture.
Takamoto Katsuta “survived” the evening in 12th place, 17.6s up the road from the troubled Greensmith.
Leading positions after SS2
1 Neuville (Hyundai)
2 Ogier (Toyota) +19.1s
3 Tänak (Hyundai) +25.1s
4 Evans (Toyota) +25.4s
5 Loeb (Hyundai) +51.0s
6 Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +1m07.8s
7 Rovanperä (Toyota) +1m18.5s
8 Camilli (Citroën) +1m58.6s
9 Ostberg (Citroën) +1m59.6s
10 Sarrazin (Hyundai) +2m19.6s
