Monte Carlo Rally WRC: Ogier keeping Neuville at bay on Saturday – WRC

Citroen’s Sebastien Ogier continues to hold Thierry Neuville at bay for the lead of the Monte Carlo Rally, and has a 5.3-second advantage after Saturday’s first two stages.

The tyre-choice gambles that influenced Friday were taken out of the equation, with four studded tyres and two softs taken by all leading crews, meaning gaps were much tighter on both stages on Saturday morning compared to the rally’s previous tests.

Ogier still managed to take 3.6s out of Neuville on the opening Agnieres en Devoluy-Corps stage, although Neuville pulled 0.3s back immediately thereafter.

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Behind the lead pair a hectic battle for the final podium place swung towards Jari-Matti Latvala, running as the lead Toyota in third.

Andreas Mikkelsen had started the day with a slim advantage for the final podium position but lost a wheel while crossing the finish line of stage nine.

With his co-driver Andreas Jaeger’s notes telling him to go flat-out, the left-rear of his Hyundai i20 smashed into a wall, ripping the wheel off and destroying the wheel hub assembly, forcing him to retire.

Sebastien Loeb initially capitalised to take third but quickly dropped down to fourth, stalling on stage 10 and then lacking confidence for the rest of his run to drop behind Latvala. The pair are now separated by 4.7s.

Early rally leader Ott Tanak won both stages, moving up to sixth after Mikkelsen’s retirement and then fifth when Elfyn Evans crashed out on stage 10. His pair of fastest times mean he is now 35s behind Loeb.

Evans dropped out of sixth place by running wide on a fast left-hander little more than a kilometre into St Leger les Melezes-La Batie Neuve, dropping off a steep bank and clipping a tree. Tanak had also run wide at the same corner but continued unhindered.

More than three minutes behind his Toyota team-mate Tanak, Kris Meeke is now sixth, 5m30.4s off rally leader Ogier.

Teemu Suninen and Esapekka Lappi began the morning separated by only 12.6s despite both being well out of the top 10, but Lappi’s day ended almost as soon as it began – his Citroen C3 grinding to a halt with a technical problem.

Evans’ retirement means Suninen is now set to score manufacturers’ points for M-Sport, despite only having just climbed into the top 20 overall.

High attrition for the factory WRC drivers means WRC2 Pro leader Gus Greensmith is now seventh overall for M-Sport’s junior team, with WRC2 runners Yoann Bonato, Stephane Sarrazin and Gregoire De Mevius completing the top 10.

Leading positions after SS10