Toyota debutant Sébastien Ogier’s leapt ahead of team-mate Elfyn Evans on Friday’s final stage to lead Rallye Monte-Carlo after a day on which world champion Ott Tänak crashed heavily.
Evans started Friday in fourth but charged up to second and then first across the morning ahead of overnight leader Thierry Neuville and six-time champion Ogier.
But after winning all three of the morning’s stages, Evans struggled to repeat his form in the afternoon and was overhauled by Ogier on the final Avançon / Notre-Dame-Du-Lais test to trail by 1.2 seconds heading into Saturday.
“It was more muddy in here than we expected,” Evans said. “We probably could’ve done something a little bit different but OK.”
Ogier, who admitted he still wasn’t 100% confident with the Yaris WRC, confessed to struggling with tyre wear on the day’s final two stages but still managed to 3.4s from Evans on SS8 to take the lead for the first since Thursday night’s opener.
“It’s been a tough end of the day,” Ogier revealed. “We had a little bit of tyre wear. We are happy to be here, it’s not a bad time.”
Neuville won the final stage of the day but in truth was never quite on the same pace as the two Toyotas ahead of him.
Handling issues and difficulties with pace note corrections with the gravel crew hampered his day. Regular crew member Bruno Thiry has fallen ill so has been displaced by Dani Sordo in Neuville’s gravel team.
But nonetheless, the Hyundai is just 6.4s adrift of Ogier’s lead.
“I had a good stage to be honest,” Neuville said. “A difficult day but a good stage in the end. We were fighting a bit in the end with corrections from the gravel crew to find the right words between Dani and me. Not an easy day for us and disappointing.”
Tänak started Friday in third ahead of Evans, but immediately slipped back to fourth after the morning’s first test.
But that’s as far as Hyundai’s newest recruit would get, as a scary, high-speed, accident on the first pass of Saint-Clément – Freissinières ended his day early.
Thankfully he and co-driver Martin Järveoja are both OK but will remain in hospital overnight for precautionary monitoring.
Tänak’s demise promoted team-mate Sébastien Loeb to fourth place; a position he would maintain until the end of the day. Esapekka Lappi is fifth for M-Sport but wasn’t happy with his pace.
Kalle Rovanperä is sixth on his first full day in a WRC car in the championship, setting a time just 3.3s slower than stage winner Ogier on the penultimate test. He is 22s behind compatriot Lappi after Friday.
Takamoto Katsuta is seventh ahead of WRC3 leader Eric Camilli, who suffered a scare with his brakes on the day’s final two stages.
Mads Ostberg leads WRC2 for Citroen but Hyundai’s Ole Christian Veiby is just 13.9s in arrears.
M-Sport duo Teemu Suninen and Gus Greensmith had a day of mixed fortunes. Suninen returned after retiring on Thursday night and climbed from 55th to within sight of the top 10; but Greensmith exited the contest on the morning’s first stage when he slid down a bank.
Leading positions after Friday:
1 Ogier (Toyota)
2 Evans (Toyota) +1.2s
3 Neuville (Hyundai) +6.4s
4 Loeb (Hyundai) +1m06.9s
5 Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +1m57.2s
6 Rovanperä (Toyota) +2m19.2s
7 Katsuta (Toyota) +5m18.7s
8 Camilli (Citroën) +8m06.2s
9 Ciamin (Hyundai) +9m04.0s
10 Ostberg (Citroën) +9m37.2s
