Rally Monte Carlo
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Crash
Suggestions that rally leader Neuville has a rear left puncture that he has to stop and change.
Meanwhile Sordo explains that his power steering suddenly went in a sixth gear corner, prompting him to go off the road and leaving the car near undriveable afterwards. He's lost over a minute and dropped to sixth behind Breen.
Crash
Reports from the stage that rally leader Neuville has stopped...
Sordo reports a power steering problem as he reaches the finish.
Reliability was always likely to be a bit sketchy for these all-new cars on their debut. Meeke and Lefebvre have both had troubles with their Citroens, Tanak had some scares with his Ford this morning and Latvala had headaches in his Toyota yesterday.
But this is the first hint of a mechanical stumble for Hyundai, which is of course leading with Neuville.
But this is the first hint of a mechanical stumble for Hyundai, which is of course leading with Neuville.
Crash
Reports from the stage that Sordo's Hyundai is moving very slowly...
Crash
Potentially a problem for Sordo - he's suddenly dropped 20s to Breen in the latter part of the stage.
Stopwatch
Ogier is looking good on the early part of the stage, putting in another strong split time. His gain on Neuville is only a second so far, but it makes sense to keep pushing - both to learn the M-Sport Ford a bit more and to keep Neuville on his toes just in case.
Quote
Evans is in, and he's enjoying the 2017 Fiesta:
"It doesn't matter about the time at this stage, when you get this car on dry Tarmac... oi, oi! That's what this is about."
And that's why he's still pushing even though there's massive gap from his current seventh place to sixth.
"It doesn't matter about the time at this stage, when you get this car on dry Tarmac... oi, oi! That's what this is about."
And that's why he's still pushing even though there's massive gap from his current seventh place to sixth.
The podium contenders are now onto the stage, and Ogier is the first man to beat Evans's pace at split one.
Onto the middle of the stage, Sordo is now fastest there and adding to his advantage over Breen again.
Onto the middle of the stage, Sordo is now fastest there and adding to his advantage over Breen again.
Stopwatch
Once again Evans has started very well, he's faster than Breen, Sordo and Latvala at the first split.
After being outpaced by the Hyundai on the last loop, Breen is coming back at Sordo a bit now - he's a couple of seconds quicker at split one.
After being outpaced by the Hyundai on the last loop, Breen is coming back at Sordo a bit now - he's a couple of seconds quicker at split one.
Twitter
Doesn't look like there will be any ice or snow to worry about on this one so it's a straight fight and slicks all round.
Green flag
Elfyn Evans is first on the road again, waiting to see if he's setting the pace again after his and DMACK's blistering morning.
Information
Here's Kris Meeke's co-driver Paul Nagle's view on what's coming up:
SS13 Bayons-Breziers (15.83 miles)
This stage hasn’t been used for a long time (it ran between 1980 and 1999, but in the opposite direction).
Off the start it’s a fast road uphill, but then there are a lot of hairpins that take you up over the Col de Sagnes.
On the other side the road gets progressively wider and faster before the section between the villages of Bellaffaire and Breziers, which is quite twisty and technical and running down through a valley alongside the river.
SS13 Bayons-Breziers (15.83 miles)
This stage hasn’t been used for a long time (it ran between 1980 and 1999, but in the opposite direction).
Off the start it’s a fast road uphill, but then there are a lot of hairpins that take you up over the Col de Sagnes.
On the other side the road gets progressively wider and faster before the section between the villages of Bellaffaire and Breziers, which is quite twisty and technical and running down through a valley alongside the river.
As usual, the Monte doesn't quite follow the usual pattern of a morning loop of 3-ish stages and then same again in the afternoon.
Today we had a two-stage loop run twice in the morning punctuated by service, and now we're reconvening for a single afternoon stage.
Today we had a two-stage loop run twice in the morning punctuated by service, and now we're reconvening for a single afternoon stage.
Welcome back to Autosport Live, time for some more Monte Carlo Rally action.
Information
SS12 summary:
* Another stage win for Evans as he advertises DMACK's dry asphalt pace
* Ogier visits a field but still gets cautious Neuville's lead down to 51s
* Tanak's car is healthy again and he holds third
* Another stage win for Evans as he advertises DMACK's dry asphalt pace
* Ogier visits a field but still gets cautious Neuville's lead down to 51s
* Tanak's car is healthy again and he holds third
Stopwatch
SS12 RESULTS
Leading stage times:
1 Evans 8m56.7s
2 Ogier +7.4s
3 Sordo +11.6s
4 Tanak +14.1s
5 Neuville +15.0s
6 Latvala +15.9s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Ogier +51.0s
3 Tanak +1m29.8s
4 Latvala +3m04.1s
5 Sordo +3m43.1s
6 Breen +4m21.6s
7 Evans +8m19.9s
Leading stage times:
1 Evans 8m56.7s
2 Ogier +7.4s
3 Sordo +11.6s
4 Tanak +14.1s
5 Neuville +15.0s
6 Latvala +15.9s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Ogier +51.0s
3 Tanak +1m29.8s
4 Latvala +3m04.1s
5 Sordo +3m43.1s
6 Breen +4m21.6s
7 Evans +8m19.9s
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Quote
Neuville puts that relative lack of pace down to using snow tyres on a fairly dry road, a choice he said was a case of playing it safe.
"The rally is long, we're going to try to be clever," he says.
"The rally is long, we're going to try to be clever," he says.
Stopwatch
Well if Ogier did lose time there, Neuville lost a lot more - the rally leader is only fifth fastest, 15s off stage winner Evans's pace and 8s down on Ogier.
The lead is cut to 51s.
The lead is cut to 51s.
Crash
Ogier says he had a quick trip into a field on that stage as he understeered on his combination of snow tyres and a dirty road. He thinks that cost him a bit of time...
Stopwatch
Ogier wasn't transmitting splits again, but he is at the finish now with the second-fastest time to Evans, 7s off. Given that Neuville was 9s off Evans on the splits, that suggests Ogier will have trimmed a bit more from his lead.
Good news on the Tanak front: he says he managed to resolve the issues with his Fiesta between stages. He sets a safe third-fastest time on this one, which ought to keep him third overall.
Evans's time still stands as the stage's fastest right now, with the caveat that we're yet to see what Ogier and Neuville are going to do.
After being so troubled by his misbehaving car on the previous stage, Tanak's times seem broadly competitive on this one and he's running OK.
Sordo adds another 15s to his advantage over Breen in fifth, and Latvala makes it through safely too.
It's Evans's turn to not send any split times out on this stage, but he's reached the finish safely.
David Evans
In career terms, times are tough for Andreas Mikkelsen right now – but he's slowly piecing together a deal for this season (check this coming week's Motorsport News for details). There was significant concern that he'd turned to cigarette advertising to make ends meet. Turns out, however, it's not him in this Marlboro ad (shown in Monaco and not France, of course).
He may have lost seventh overall to Evans now, but there's really no stopping Mikkelsen in WRC2 - where his lead over Skoda team-mate Kopecky has grown to 3m09s.
Green flag
Evans gets going on SS12.
Information
Meeke is back up and running after that ignition problem that made his disappointing weekend a bit more miserable and completes SS11 running out of start order and off the pace.
But at least his co-driver Paul Nagle has completed this description of the upcoming SS12 for us:
SS12 La Batie Montsaleon-Faye (10.42 miles)
The first two kilometres is new at the beginning of this stage, so we have new notes for those, but after that we have notes all the way to the finish.
The start is really fast, very fast until we get to the junction with the D48. After that the road's quite a bit more twisty.
We climb up over two cols in this stage and, again, the road here was really snowy during the recce.
But at least his co-driver Paul Nagle has completed this description of the upcoming SS12 for us:
SS12 La Batie Montsaleon-Faye (10.42 miles)
The first two kilometres is new at the beginning of this stage, so we have new notes for those, but after that we have notes all the way to the finish.
The start is really fast, very fast until we get to the junction with the D48. After that the road's quite a bit more twisty.
We climb up over two cols in this stage and, again, the road here was really snowy during the recce.
Information
SS11 summary:
* Ogier happier with the car and fastest, but only beats Neuville by 2s
* Tanak reports his car is "very sick" but keeps going in third for now
* Sordo extends gap over Breen in fifth
* Evans moves into seventh ahead of Mikkelsen
* Ogier happier with the car and fastest, but only beats Neuville by 2s
* Tanak reports his car is "very sick" but keeps going in third for now
* Sordo extends gap over Breen in fifth
* Evans moves into seventh ahead of Mikkelsen
Stopwatch
SS11 RESULTS:
Leading stage times:
1 Ogier 22m53.0s
2 Neuville +2.1s
3 Latvala +14.4s
4 Evans +20.1s
5 Tanak +20.8s
6 Sordo +22.1s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Ogier +58.6s
3 Tanak +1m30.7s
4 Latvala +3m03.2s
5 Sordo +3m46.5s
6 Breen +4m10.0s
Leading stage times:
1 Ogier 22m53.0s
2 Neuville +2.1s
3 Latvala +14.4s
4 Evans +20.1s
5 Tanak +20.8s
6 Sordo +22.1s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Ogier +58.6s
3 Tanak +1m30.7s
4 Latvala +3m03.2s
5 Sordo +3m46.5s
6 Breen +4m10.0s
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Quote
"I tried to be smoother," says Neuville. "Towards the end I had a lot of mud on the windscreen and I couldn't get it away."
Stopwatch
Neuville comes in second fastest, 2.1s off Ogier. That won't make a huge difference to the one-minute lead Neuville had established, but Ogier was sounding pretty determined there. Still six stages to go...
Quote
Ogier says he's feeling more at home with the Ford - which he still has relatively little mileage in - on the second run of the stages.
"I think it was a good stage. I was happy with the rhythm. I need a little bit of time to get the rhythm, I cannot immediately be on the limit on the morning loop."
"I think it was a good stage. I was happy with the rhythm. I need a little bit of time to get the rhythm, I cannot immediately be on the limit on the morning loop."
Stopwatch
Well we didn't get any split times from Ogier but we do have his time at the finish and it's fast, 14s quicker than anyone else so far.
That pulls him 32.1s clear of troubled team-mate Tanak.
That pulls him 32.1s clear of troubled team-mate Tanak.
By: Geoff Creighton
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