WRC Monte Carlo: Oliver Solberg survives with healthy lead intact

A wild off-road excursion failed to derail Oliver Solberg’s Rally Monte Carlo victory bid as wintry conditions wreaked havoc at the World Rally Championship curtain raiser.

Solberg continued to defy expectations, ending Saturday with a 59.3s lead over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans. Reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier had threatened to shake up the order at the front, but his charge from third wilted as he ended Saturday 1m25.3s off the lead.

Overnight snow showers meant crews faced conditions more akin to Rally Sweden than Monte Carlo, and despite initially losing time, Solberg fought back to restore his lead to 1m02.8s over Toyota team-mate Evans.

The snow that blanketed Saturday’s first stage that reduced crews to a crawl had started to melt come the afternoon’s second pass. If anything this only made conditions worse, with Evans labelling the stage among the worst he’d ever experienced.

"Unbelievable. You think it's improving, but you just get the nervous twitch from the car. If I'm asked what the worst stage ever was, this one was probably it,” said Evans.

It certainly produced drama catching out several crews; Sami Pajari offered a warning sign when the Toyota driver slid wide at right hander before hitting a tree, causing his second retirement of the week.

Sami Pajari Marko Salminen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Federico Manoni / NurPhoto via Getty Images

M-Sport-Ford’s Gregoire Munster was the next to hit trouble and was fortunate to recover from a spin at tight right hander. Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon wasn’t so fortunate as he slid off the road and down a bank. Luckily, fans were able to push the New Zealander back on the road but more than six minutes were lost, dropping him from seventh to outside the top 10.

Paddon’s Hyundai team-mates Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux both survived wild spins. Neuville admitted he “was a passenger from the beginning to the end” of the stage while Fourmaux said there was “so much slush and mud, the tyre just can't evacuate it.”

Rally leader Solberg was among those caught off as his GR Yaris fired off the road and into a field, but the Swede was able to spin the car around and rejoin the road. Despite the off, Solberg still stood at the top of the timesheets, 1.9s quicker than Evans, as he collected a sixth stage win of the rally.

Ogier admitted he opted to back off completely which resulted in a loss of 18.7s to Solberg, as he dropped 26.6s behind Evans in the fight for second overall.

“I think everybody went off. I tried to drive as clean as I could but it [the stage] still took me out,” said Solberg.

“When I went into the ditch I thought it was ok and I slammed it down the gears and went full throttle up the mountain. Coming back onto the road there was this ditch and If I went with the front in I may have broken the radiator so I went sideways and then it was fine and I still won the stage, incredible.”

Adrien Fourmaux Alexandre Coria, , Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: McKlein Photography / LAT Images via Getty Images

The rally had so far been dominated by Toyota but Hyundai did chalk up its first stage win of the season when the rally headed to the heart of Monaco for a blast around a shortened version of the principality’s grand prix circuit.

Fourmaux was fastest in the tricky wet conditions, posting a time 0.7s quicker than Takamoto Katsuta.

Rally leader Solberg faced the worst of the rain and decided to back off, dropping time to his rivals Evans and Ogier, which reduced his lead to just under a minute.

“I need to breathe now, the conditions have been crazy all the time. Even this last one [on the Grand Prix circuit] I had full rain and aquaplaning and I thought, I’m just going to back off,” he said. “It is a shame I didn’t enjoy it as there is too much pressure and too much on the line to enjoy it with such rain.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s final four stages, where more snow is expected, Solberg says the goal is clear given there are also Super Sunday points on the line.

“This means so much to me in the position I am now, and for the team it is so important, I don’t think there are many people that will prefer those Super Sunday conditions tomorrow. If I do my job and be clean and make no mistakes I should take some points,” he added.