Although he has no plans to contest the entire WRC in 2013, Sébastien Loeb has clearly lost none of his motivation. The first four stages of the Rallye Monte-Carlo saw the Citroën driver leave his rivals gasping for breath, their ranks led by Volkswagen’s Sébastien Ogier who trails by 1m20.3s (!) after almost 140km of competitive action. The third man on tonight’s all-Michelin podium is Loeb’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen (+1m46.7s).
The snow that swept over much of France during the early part of the week made way for brighter, drier weather today as the 2013 World Rally Championship got under way with two loops of two stages.
Because of the resulting mixed conditions (clear asphalt, ice and snow), however, especially on the two visits to the awesome ‘Le Burzet’ test (SS2 and SS4), nearly all the front-runners (including Loeb!) were relieved to survive what turned out to be one of the most complex days in recent ‘Monte-Carlo’ history.
“There was less snow on Le Burzet than this morning but there were a number of places where you couldn’t tell whether the road was wet or icy. The damp patches appear to be refreezing but you couldn’t be sure,” reported the Frenchman at the end of SS4. “I lost grip in a few places, so I wasn’t completely confident. It’s good to have reached the finish…”
The veteran’s closest chaser tonight is his ex-Citroën team-mate, Sébastien Ogier, who has given Volkswagen an encouraging start to its first full WRC campaign. The Frenchman even led momentarily after SS1 before being passed by Loeb. VW will be pleased that he had a relatively trouble-free run, but Ogier himself spent much of the day repeating that he was concentrating on his own performance and not taking any notice of Loeb’s times…
Citroën’s new number one driver Mikko Hirvonen is third overall, but he rarely showed any real speed. “I really don’t know why,” he said at the end of the day. “I hate these conditions!”
For his first rally back in Citroën colours, Dani Sordo will be hoping for a strong points finish this week and his careful drive was rewarded by provisional fourth place (+2m01.7s), just behind Hirvonen.
Meanwhile, Jari-Matti Latvala is fifth (+2m32.2s) in the second Volkswagen Polo R and would have been challenging for a footing on the podium had he not taken a 30-second penalty for late arrival at the start of SS2. As a result, he is closely chased by Ford/M-Sport’s best-placed representative, Evgeny Novikov (6th, +2m50.6s).
Tonight’s top 10 is rounded off by Citroën privateer Bryan Bouffier (7th) and Ford Fiesta WRC drivers Juho Hanninen (8th), Monte rookie Mads Ostberg (9th) and Martin Prokop (10th).
The day’s chief victim was Ford’s Thierry Neuville who crashed out on SS4, while Michal Kosciuszko’s first day of competition in a WRC car was poorly rewarded when his Mini picked up an engine problem. He is 21st. For information, the ‘Rally2’ ruling does not apply to the Rallye Monte-Carlo, so a driver who retires cannot re-join the next day.
