Barely two months after Thierry Neuville's first coronation, the Belgian is already putting his crown back on the line! This Thursday evening the Monte-Carlo Rally began with three night specials, and the reigning world champion opened the road. On the menu, 54 km spread over three special stages with conditions whose complexity has increased.
The ES1 will thus clearly remain the one which offered the best profile, despite a few patches of humidity without much impact. Even without being particularly selective, it allowed Sébastien Ogier to take the lead, taking with him Elfyn Evans, Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux, a little further back for his big debut with Hyundai.
This trend was confirmed in SS2, the longest of this night loop since it was contested over more than 21 km. This time, all the drivers noticed a much more precarious road condition, with a few patches of ice and sometimes very limited visibility.
Sébastien Ogier took the opportunity to bag a second consecutive scratch while Adrien Fourmaux stood out with the third time, just behind Thierry Neuville.
Sébastien Ogier won the first two special stages.
Photo de: Red Bull Content Pool
SS3 was nevertheless the most feared, the late hour having led to the formation of frost on a particularly degraded course and visibly deteriorating from passage to passage, also with mud.
In this little game, it was therefore preferable to be among the first on the road, but the first error of this edition was made by Sébastien Ogier, who made a mistake at the start of the special. The Frenchman narrowly managed to avoid correction, resuming his path after losing around fifteen seconds in his misadventure.
-Elfyn Evans, for his part, demonstrated how comfortable he could be on the roads of Monte-Carlo by signing the scratch 5.4″ ahead of Thierry Neuville, the Hyundai driver taking control of the rally. Further on, world champions Ott Tänak and Kalle Rovanperä concluded a rather pale evening, which placed them respectively 4th and 6th in the general ranking on the eve of Friday.
| Thursday night scratches | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ES1 | 19,01 km | Digne-les-Bains / Chaudon-Norante |  S. Ogier |
| ES2 | 21,18 km | Cairo Falcon / Bréziers | S. Ogier |
| ES3 | 13,97 km | Avançon / Notre-Dame-du-Laus 1 |  E. Evans |
Monte-Carlo Rally – Ranking after SS3
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