Leg report
WRC Rally Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo WRC: Evans retakes lead from Ogier
Elfyn Evans has snatched the lead of the Monte Carlo rally from his Toyota WRC teammate Sebastien Ogier after a strong Saturday morning loop.
Rob Hansford
Edited: Jan 26, 2020, 2:51 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Ogier had started the morning with a 1.2s lead over his teammate, and extended it by 1.6s in the opening SS9 stage, but Evans fought back in the La Breole-Slonnet loop to win the stage by 7.6s and take the lead of the rally by 4.8 seconds.
Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville remains third, having won the St-Leger Les Melezes - La Batie Neuve test, but the 2019 WRC runner-up lost 14 seconds in the second stage, leaving him 11.8s behind Ogier.
Sebastien Loeb had a tricky morning, losing time to the leaders in the first two stages of the morning loop, and the nine-time champion admitted that he had “slowed down too much” after trying to save his tyres in SS10.
His cautious approach meant he ended the stage 20 seconds off the pace and is now 1m39.6s behind rally leader Evans.
M-Sport's Esapekka Lappi ended the morning in fifth place, but was unhappy as he found there wasn’t as much ice on the road as his pacenotes had suggested, but despite that, he still extended the gap to Kalle Rovenpera in sixth to 19.5s.
The first of the WRC3 runners were next, with Eric Camilli moving up to seventh place in his Citroen C3, with Toyota driver Takamoto Katsuta dropping down to eighth place.
Katsuta spun his Yaris in the middle of St Leger Les Melezes - La Batie Neuve stage, costing him just over three and a half minutes as he stopped to clear snow from his radiator before continuing to finish.
Citroen C3 driver Nicolas Ciamin is second in the WRC3 class, and ninth overall, ending the morning 19.6s ahead of WRC2 leader Mads Ostberg, who rounded out the top ten.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Monte Carlo WRC: Ogier grabs lead from Evans
Next article Monte Carlo WRC: Evans stays in front, Neuville closes in
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Rob Hansford
Monte Carlo WRC: Neuville wins season opener for Hyundai
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo WRC: Neuville wins season opener for Hyundai
Monte Carlo WRC: Neuville leapfrogs Toyota duo
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo WRC: Neuville leapfrogs Toyota duo
Monte Carlo WRC: Evans stays in front, Neuville closes in
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo WRC: Evans stays in front, Neuville closes in
More from
Elfyn Evans
New WRC champion Elfyn Evans relieved after “surreal” Sardinia title showdown
WRC
WRC
Rally Italy
New WRC champion Elfyn Evans relieved after “surreal” Sardinia title showdown
WRC Sardinia: Elfyn Evans claims historic title after Oliver Solberg crashes in final-stage showdown
WRC
WRC
Rally Italy
WRC Sardinia: Elfyn Evans claims historic title after Oliver Solberg crashes in final-stage showdown
More from
Toyota Racing
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
9 h
Toyota: BMW has advantage in Barcelona WEC after private test
Where Sami Pajari can improve after WRC title near miss
WRC
WRC
Rally Italy
Where Sami Pajari can improve after WRC title near miss
Latest news
Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 2 h
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
Indy NXT
IndL Indy NXT 4 h
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 4 h
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe