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Rally Monte Carlo

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We've tagged WRC2 leaders Andreas Mikkelsen and Jan Kopecky onto the bottom of the running order.

Mikkelsen is joining Kopecky in the works Skoda team for this event having lost his seat at VW when the squad pulled out of the WRC.

He has no place being in an R5 after winning the last round of the WRC - Australia - outright, but he's making the most of it. He's well over three minutes clear of Kopecky.
Here's your running order with the stage due to start shortly:

Neuville
Evans
Sordo
Breen
Latvala
Tanak
Ogier
Lefebvre
Hanninen
Mikkelsen
Kopecky
This could well be our shortest stage guide in Autosport Live history. Here's Kris Meeke's Paul Nagle with details of SS14.

SS14/16 Luceram-Col St Roch (3.41 miles)

"This one’s not really much of a stage, it’s basically a way of getting us up to the start of the Turini. It’s straights and hairpins to climb just over 300 metres in three miles."
As always, we have excellent insight from our very own DAVID EVANS on the ground in Gap. Here's an update on tyres.

"Ogier and Tanak have taken four super-softs with two studless winters. Breen has two softs, two super-softs and two studless winters.

"Latvala is running four super-softs and two studded winters, while his team-mate Hanninen is the only one of the lead crews to leave Monaco with winters on the car. Juho's crossed super-softs with two studless winters (and has two more studless winters in the boot).

"The thinking is that it'll be dry for the first loop with rain, sleet and snow moving in possibly for SS16 and almost certainly for SS17.

"Typical Monte morning this one, with the crews choosing their tyres at 0740 for a stage they will start at 1218!"
That would be 1999, Rally Australia. The legendary Carlos Sainz behind the wheel.

That would be 1999, Rally Australia. The legendary Carlos Sainz behind the wheel.

Speaking of M-Sport's 2012 win, Jari-Matti Latvala was in the driving seat. Today, he's on for a shock podium in the new Toyota. When was the last time a works Toyota finished on a podium in the WRC?
And if it stays that way, Sebastien Ogier is set to give the M-Sport outfit a first win since Wales Rally GB in 2012, when the team was still backed by Ford.

And if it stays that way, Sebastien Ogier is set to give the M-Sport outfit a first win since Wales Rally GB in 2012, when the team was still backed by Ford.

Here's how the overall leaderboard looks heading into today:

1 Ogier
2 Tanak +47.1s
3 Latvala +2m20.6s
4 Breen +3m47.3s
5 Sordo +4m03.2s
6 Evans +7m27.2s
Hello and good morning, welcome to Autosport's live coverage of the Monte Carlo Rally.

Who will win the first event of the WRC's brave new era? In four stages time, we'll have an answer.
Neuville has a little over 30 miles to cover to get back to service and get the car repaired ready to resume tomorrow.

Although he's still relatively high up the order in 15th, he's 17 minutes away from the top 10 so scoring points that way looks out of the question. It's the powerstage that he'll be looking at.
Neuville explains what happened: "In a quite slow corner on the exit I went wide and I hit something. I don't know what."
That leaves Neuville 15th overall - but the car is crabbing badly, will he make it back to service?
Neuville makes it to the stage finish and he's lost 32 minutes.
Neuville has lost about 20-25 minutes, but he'll probably still be in the top 15 overall as attrition as high and time gaps outside the top dozen are huge.
Looks like Neuville has managed to get his damaged Hyundai moving again. Rally2 doesn't apply on Sundays, so if he didn't reach the finish of this stage he would've had no chance to restart tomorrow and wouldn't have had a shot at the powerstage - now worth five points of course.
In WRC2, Mikkelsen's lead stands at 3m19s over Skoda team-mate Kopecky now, with Bouffier another two minutes back in third.

Tidemand holds 10th in his not-registered-for-WRC2 Skoda, but he may well be nudged out of the points by the Rally2-ing Lefebvre in the morning as the WRC Citroen is now just 1m19.1s behind.
SS13 SUMMARY:

* Dominant rally leader Neuville damages his suspension and retires

* Ogier moves into lead ahead of Tanak in an M-Sport one-two

* Latvala now on course for podium for Toyota

* Sordo's power steering fails and he falls back behind Breen

* Evans goes fastest again
SS13 RESULTS:

Leading stage times:

1 Evans 14m27.5s
2 Ogier +1.7s
3 Meeke +7.9s
4 Latvala +9.2s
5 Tanak +10.0s
6 Breen +18.4s

Overall leaderboard:

1 Ogier
2 Tanak +47.1s
3 Latvala +2m20.6s
4 Breen +3m47.3s
5 Sordo +4m03.2s
6 Evans +7m27.2s
Hanninen's delay on the stage was due to a puncture, incidentally.
If you're just joining us, Neuville has lost his weekend-long rally lead after sustaining suspension damage on Saturday's final stage. It's now Ogier leading from Tanak.
Lefebvre is through (he'll be quite close to getting back into the points now incidentally) and says he could only see a puncture on Neuville's car but that the crew was working on it.
Neuville had controlled this rally from the outset and not put a foot wrong so far, getting his lead as high as 1m12s yesterday and then rebuilding it from 45s to 1m00s this morning after a small Ogier surge on Friday afternoon.

He'd played it safe on the last loop and spoke of trying to drive 'cleverly' as he took a 51s advantage into the final five stages. But now it looks ever more likely that he's not just delayed but out.
Incidentally, Ogier wasn't quite as fast as Evans on that stage so that's a third win in five stages for Evans and DMACK.
Neuville remains stopped with his suspension damage. It looking like he got the car moving briefly on the tracking system.
So our top three is now:

1 Ogier
2 Tanak +47.1s
3 Latvala +2m20.6s

An M-Sport one-two and a Toyota heading for the podium...
Here's Ogier's view on Neuville's exit:

"He was doing a great rally so far," says Ogier. "He was on fabulous speed in these conditions. To do a whole Monte Carlo at this speed was definitely a challenge.

"We had some luck this weekend. I touched a bank on this stage. Monte Carlo is a rally where you always need to leave a margin. I never wish any bad luck on anyone and I feel sorry for him."
Reports from the stage that Neuville has damaged rear suspension and is trying to fix it on the stage. He's definitely now lost the lead.
Tanak and Ogier make it in safely - M-Sport now has a one-two with Neuville potentially out.
Neuville has yet to get going again - is the damage worse than a puncture? He's stopped just after halfway through the stage.
And Hanninen (running under Rally2 anyway) has come to a halt on the tracking system too.

By: Geoff Creighton

Published: