Monte Carlo Rally 2016
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Autosport Live will next be in action for round two of the 2016 WRC in Sweden three weeks from now. See you then.
Checkered flag
Final rally results:
1 Ogier
2 Mikkelsen +1m54.5s
3 Neuville +3m17.9s
4 Ostberg +4m47.7s
5 Lefebvre +7m35.6s
6 Sordo +10m35.5s
7 Tanak +11m39.9s
8 Evans +18m30.8s
9 Lappi +20m41.0s
10 Kremer +20m43.9s
1 Ogier
2 Mikkelsen +1m54.5s
3 Neuville +3m17.9s
4 Ostberg +4m47.7s
5 Lefebvre +7m35.6s
6 Sordo +10m35.5s
7 Tanak +11m39.9s
8 Evans +18m30.8s
9 Lappi +20m41.0s
10 Kremer +20m43.9s
Skoda man Esapekka Lappi pops in and beats Armin Kremer to second in WRC2 and ninth overall by just 2.9s, having got to grips with the conditions better and better through the weekend.
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That didn't look guaranteed all weekend - Meeke was pushing Ogier properly hard for the first half of the event. But Meeke's not around all season, and none of the men who will be looked like they had anything for Ogier here. Still, early days for that Hyundai.
Stopwatch
Powerstage results:
1 Ogier 8m09.6s
2 Sordo +1.4s
3 Mikkelsen +5.9s
4 Lefebvre +5.9s
5 Ostberg +11.5s
6 Tanak +19.7s
1 Ogier 8m09.6s
2 Sordo +1.4s
3 Mikkelsen +5.9s
4 Lefebvre +5.9s
5 Ostberg +11.5s
6 Tanak +19.7s
That's another unnerving start to the season for Ogier's rivals.
Checkered flag
Ogier comes in - he wins the powerstage by 1.4s over Sordo and he wins a third straight Monte Carlo Rally.
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Stopwatch
Meanwhile on the splits, Ogier is blitzing this one...
Here's Mikkelsen, second fastest to Sordo on the stage and securing second in the Monte Carlo Rally.
Neuville puts that down to a transmission problem but he's delighted with that result and confident the car will make it back to the official finish in Monte Carlo.
After that increasingly woeful 2015, Neuville is back.
After that increasingly woeful 2015, Neuville is back.
Neuville makes it through. He's dropped a minute on that stage effectively, but he's still managed to bring it home third overall on the new i20's debut. Let's see what his problem was.
Sordo's still looking good for extra points - Mikkelsen is a touch slower than him at split one. Ogier is just heading onto the stage.
Ostberg comes in third fastest behind Sordo and Lefebvre to begin his second M-Sport career with a fourth place in Monte Carlo.
He began the stage two and a half minutes clear of fourth-placed Ostberg so his overall podium isn't in jeopardy as long as the Hyundai keeps running.
Neuville has lost 24s at the first split - that really doesn't look good. Whatever has been troubling the Hyundai this morning is clearly still there.
Fifth place for Lefebvre is a great result, he's understandably delighted with it. His early top-class outings with Citroen hadn't brought many fireworks, but a top-five finish on a rally like this is an excellent achievement.
Not clear yet where else he'll be appearing during 2016, but Lefebvre is showing Meeke isn't Citroen's only man to watch.
Not clear yet where else he'll be appearing during 2016, but Lefebvre is showing Meeke isn't Citroen's only man to watch.
Sordo does have a decent chance of a bonus point or two here, depending on how seriously the outright top four take the powerstage. He's fastest still as Lefebvre slots into second on stage times.
Stopwatch
Sordo is fastest by miles on the stage so far, but he was up against a WRC2 car and a car with a broken differential, that's not totally representative just yet.
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Tanak is off the pace at the split, but this is very much a learning event for DMACK. Its rubber has been much stronger on gravel so far. He'll finish seventh overall, but a distant seventh.
Checkered flag
Showing the effect of that breakage for Paddon, he's 36s slower than Evans - who takes the finish and becomes WRC2 winner.
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"It's been a character-building weekend but we always knew it was going to be like that here," says Paddon. "Our season starts in Sweden."
Paddon's time tailed off at the end of that stage. He reveals that he broke "something in the differential" under braking for a hairpin near the finish.
Given how much of the weekend he's spent saying he's uncomfortable with the new i20's handling and the fact he clouted a bank and punctured a tyre on Saturday, sixth will be a reasonable result for Sordo. And it's the top-three stage times that have really caught the eye.
First representative split times are in, and Sordo is showing good pace again, 1.5s up on team-mate Paddon.
Runaway WRC2 leader Elfyn Evans is just about to get going too. He's reacted to his demotion rather well so far - shrugging off two punctures to dominate the secondary class in M-Sport's latest R5 weapon, despite opposition including Esapekka Lappi and Quentin Gilbert. Evans's rivals in the revived British Rally Championship will be watching, warily.
So though it wasn't ideal that Paddon ripped a rear wheel off the car on Friday morning, it didn't matter too much, especially as he then got to rejoin under Rally2 and notch up some Monte Carlo experience for the second half of the rally.
This rally is really just a bit of a warm-up for Paddon, it's his last hurrah in the 2015 Hyundai i20 before he gets the new car for Sweden.
But as Ogier, Latvala and Neuville have all proved in fairly spectacular fashion in the last year, sometimes things DO go wrong on powerstages.
Little to play for here apart from a bit of powerstage pride. All the leading positions are set as long as nothing goes wrong.
Green flag
Right, Hayden is off, let's get this rally finished.
Paddon is on the startline with his Hyundai's door open, looking a bit bored.
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WRC2 leader Evans and Rally2 runner Paddon will kick us off, before the outright top seven come through, building up to Ogier.
And the latest start time update is 12.16 for Paddon.
And the latest start time update is 12.16 for Paddon.
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A very minor delay to the start of our finale, possibly due to spectator crowding, but it should be under way at 12.14pm local time, so in just over five minutes.
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Just the powerstage to go now, and that begins in just over 20 minutes. It's a repeat of this morning's Col de l'Orme opener.
Ogier reckons his tyres won't be in the best shape for a proper push on it. But no one else has much to fight for so even a semi-committed Ogier performance may well be enough to make this weekend a 28-point score.
Ogier reckons his tyres won't be in the best shape for a proper push on it. But no one else has much to fight for so even a semi-committed Ogier performance may well be enough to make this weekend a 28-point score.
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SS15 summary:
* Mikkelsen wins the stage and pulls his gap back to third-placed Neuville out to over 20s. Second place in the bag
* Ogier chills
* Mikkelsen wins the stage and pulls his gap back to third-placed Neuville out to over 20s. Second place in the bag
* Ogier chills
By: Matt Beer
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