2023 Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ogier maintains WRC lead on Friday
21st January 2023Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier dominated the second day of WRC’s Rallye Monte Carlo after the eight-time world champion secured all but two stage wins on Friday.
How the second day unfolded…
Friday’s stages consisted of a morning and afternoon loop of three stages; Roure/Roubion/Beuil, Puget-Theniers/Saint-Antonin and Brianconnet/Entrevaux, which will result a total distance of 105.34km.
Out of the gate, Ogier dominated the second day of running after the French world champion, and eight-time Rallye Monte-Carlo winner, secured all but two stages across the day after he was hindered with a hybrid unit issue.
Toyota’s reigning world champion, Kalle Rovanpera, had a very close call on Friday morning’s loop as the Finnish driver over-rotated into a tight left-hander and made contact with the barrier. Despite the contact, the Finn was able to continue on with minimal damage to his rear bumper.
Ogier’s first defeat in Monte came at stage six when his teammate, Elfyn Evans, won his first stage of 2023 but the Frenchman only finished 0.5 seconds behind Evans on SS6. This came after the Welshman was slapped with a puncture on the previous stage – Evans finished P5 at the end of the day.
However, Ogier soon retaliated a stage (SS7) later before – Toyota’s reigning world champion – Kalle Rovanpera secured his first stage win on the final stage of the day and quickly inherited second place after Evans’ misfortune.
As the Toyota’s dominated the top two positions (Ogier and Rovanpera), former Hyundai teammates, Ott Tanak (M-Sport Ford) and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), found themselves in a battle for third-place.
However, the battle was soon won by Neuville who remained ahead of Tanak across Friday’s six stages.
By the end of the day, Neuville sat in third with 16.3 seconds in hand over Tanak but the Belgian sat 37.9 seconds behind Ogier’s leading pace.
Pierre-Louis Loubet would have wished for a better start to his full-time drive at M-Sport Ford. On stage five, the final stage of the morning loop, the Frenchman suffered an unlucky collision with a road sign and with no mid-day service available Loubet, and his co-driver, Nicolas Gilsoul, were forced to make their own repairs.
The pairing soon lost power steering in their Ford Puma Rally1 car which haemorrhaged time to those in front.
At the end of stage four, Loubet sat in seventh but he dropped down to P9 by the end of stage five. However, the power steering issue saw the duo drop from ninth place to 29th in the overall standings.
Top 3 after Day 2:
- Sebastien Ogier, Toyota
- Kalle Rovanpera, Toyota
- Thierry Neuville, Hyundai
That’s all for the article; 2023 Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ogier maintains WRC lead on Friday!
As Ogier eyes his record-breaking ninth Monte-Carlo win, who are your early contenders for the remaining podium positions? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- 2023 Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ogier dominates opening day to take early lead
- WRC 2023 Monte Carlo Preview
- Toyota reveal WRC 2023 Yaris Rally1
- WRC, World RX and fans mourn death of Ken Block
- Ken Block, 55, dies in Snowmobile accident
- Pierre-Louis Loubet gets full-time WRC drive with Ford
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
