Sebastien Loeb wins all three special stages on Friday morning and leads the Rally Monte-Carlo: Adrien Fourmaux causes first serious accident of the season
Former champion Sebastien Loeb (Ford) put in a stellar performance on Friday morning at the Rally Monte-Carlo, season opener of the 2022 World Rally Championship (WRC), taking the lead after winning all three special stages (SS).
After five of 17 special stages, the WRC record champion has a lead of 10.6 seconds over Elfyn Evans (Toyota). Third is his team-mate Sebastien Ogier (+13,0), who was still leading the overall standings after four special stages, but lost a lot of time on the last special stage of the morning loop.
Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), Craig Breen (Ford), Ott Tänak (Hyundai), Gus Greensmith (Ford), Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), Kalle Rovanperä (both Toyota) and Oliver Solberg (Hyundai) rounded off the top 10.
Loeb pushes, Ogier is “too careful “
“I pushed hard all morning and the car is great,” said Loeb, who has now won 928 SS in his WRC career. “I have a very good feeling with this car, so I keep pushing. It was difficult with the ice, but my ice spies did a very good job and I tried to push from start to finish. ”
This was particularly evident on the fifth special stage “Val-de-Chavagne / Entrevaux 1”, where the roads were slightly icy in the final section. At the last intermediate time, Loeb, who had not driven in the WRC since September 2020, was still 2.6 seconds behind Evans. On the slippery road, the Frenchman made up 4.9 seconds on the Toyota driver in the final section of the special stage.
Ogier, on the other hand, who started first on Friday, took it easy in the difficult conditions and lost 15.8 seconds to Loeb on the fifth special stage. “I was a bit too cautious. The information from our ice spies was more extreme,” said the reigning world champion. “Now I have to attack in the afternoon. ”
Wild departure by Adrien Fourmaux
Things are still not going well at Hyundai. All three drivers complained of different problems in the morning. “It’s a nightmare. I’ve never been so scared when driving,” Neuville said after the third special stage. From the onboard perspective, his car seemed to be heavily understeering, and there was also a spin in a hairpin. But as the race progressed, the Belgian got on better with the i20 N Rally1.
The new safety cell did its job 🙏
But it looks like it’s game over for Fourmaux after this huge shunt 💥#WRC #RallyMonteCarlopic.twitter.com/9EB40QdLgJ
— Autosport (@autosport) January 21, 2022
Team mate Tänak also reported technical problems after the third special stage: “The drive wasn’t that bad, but after two corners the hybrid system indicated Error.” And Oliver Solberg was able to solve the communication problems with his co-driver, but the son of Petter Solberg was distracted by an unclear smoke development in the cockpit in the morning.
The negative highlight of Friday morning was provided by Adrien Fourmaux (Ford) in the form of the first serious accident of the new season. On the third special stage, the Frenchman grazed the embankment on the inside of a right-hand bend. There, his Puma Hybrid Rally1 was levered out, rolled over the crash barrier and rolled more than 20 metres down a slope.
The good news: Fourmaux and co-driver Alexandre Coria escaped the wreck under their own power and apparently uninjured, but for the Ford Puma the crash ended less smoothly. “The car looks pretty badly damaged so I suspect this will be the end of the rally for him,” assessed team boss Richard Millener.
In the afternoon, the three special stages of the morning will be run again.
