Latvala holds off Citroen challenge
Jari-Matti Latvala continues to lead Rally Finland and has so far fended off the charge of the works Citroens, which started the day with two stage wins
Although overnight rain minimised Latvala's disadvantage from running first on the road, he was unable to match the pace of Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb on this morning's opening stages, as Citroen's two Frenchmen scored a stage win each.
That brought Ogier up to second place ahead of Petter Solberg - who felt his lack of pace this morning was due to missing out on these stages when he retired early in 2009. The Norwegian is now just five seconds in front of fourth-placed Loeb.
The Citroens' speed was such that it looked like Ogier and maybe even Loeb would soon be bearing down on Latvala as well, but the Finn halted their charge by winning the Surkee stage and bringing his lead up to 22s with five stages to go.
Kimi Raikkonen's chance of a points finish ended when he went off the road on today's first stage. The Citroen Junior driver was helped back onto the road by spectators and continued having lost nine minutes, which dropped him from eighth to 32nd.
Raikkonen's incident gave Juha Kankkunen (Stobart Ford) a little breathing space in seventh - but not for long as Mads Ostberg (Adapta Subaru) is rapidly catching the Finnish legend as he recovers from his Friday puncture delay.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford 1h40m28.7s 2. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 22.5s 3. Petter Solberg Citroen + 28.6s 4. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 33.1s 5. Dani Sordo Citroen + 1m06.8s 6. Matthew Wilson Ford + 3m51.0s 7. Juha Kankkunen Ford + 4m46.7s 8. Mads Ostberg Subaru + 5m08.4s 9. Juho Hanninen Skoda + 5m47.2s 10. P-G Andersson Skoda + 6m35.5s
Ellis named as replacement for injured Auer in Bathurst 12 Hour
DTM race-winner Philip Ellis will make his Bathurst 12 Hour debut this week as a stand-in for the injured Lucas Auer.
Winning MSR Acura "super lucky" with Daytona 24 gearbox scare
The Meyer Shank Racing Acura team was "super lucky" to win the Daytona 24 Hours despite its malfunctioning gearbox for most of the race, according to team boss Michael Shank.
Bourdais “surprised” Cadillac was beaten on pace in Daytona 24 Hours
Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac driver Sebastien Bourdais said he was surprised that the victorious Acura ARX-06 outperformed his new V-LMDh in the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship season opener.
Daytona 24: MSR Acura opens GTP era with win, Proton snatches LMP2 by 0.016s
Meyer Shank Racing scored its second consecutive victory in the Daytona 24 Hours in the first race for the IMSA SportsCar Championship's new GTP regulations, leading an Acura 1-2 finish.
How fired-up Ogier became the WRC's ultimate Monte master
He may only be contesting a part-time campaign in the World Rally Championship these days, but Sebastien Ogier underlined that he's lost none of his speed in the 2023 season opener. Storming to yet another victory on the Monte Carlo Rally, the eight-time world champion rewrote the history books again as Toyota served notice of its intentions with a crushing 1-2
How Lancia pulled off its famous Monte Carlo giantkilling
Audi should have been invincible in the snowy conditions that typically greeted the World Rally Championship paddock in Monte Carlo. But unexpectedly warm weather for the 1983 season opener, combined with some left-field thinking from the Lancia crew turned the tables. Forty years on, team boss Cesare Fiorio reflects on a smash and grab
Why M-Sport has pinned all its efforts on a WRC reunion
M-Sport had a disastrous 2022 with its Rally1 Ford Pumas following Sebastien Loeb’s first-time-out win on the Monte. But now things are looking up with 2019 world champion Ott Tanak leading its attack, and the Cumbrian operation has optimism that it can challenge for a first title since Sebastien Ogier's departure at the end of 2018
The contenders seeking to take Rovanpera's WRC crown
As Kalle Rovanpera begins his World Rally Championship title defence in Monte Carlo, the Finn knows he has a target on his back. But who is best placed to knock the Toyota ace off his perch?
Why Rovanpera is anticipating a fight to defend his WRC title
Question: what could be harder than becoming the youngest-ever World Rally champion? Answer: becoming the youngest-ever two-time World Rally champion. That's quite the challenge facing Toyota's Kalle Rovanpera in 2022, particularly against rejuvenated opposition in the second year of the WRC's hybrid regulations
From F1 to WRC: Why Hyundai's new boss could be an inspired signing
OPINION: New Hyundai WRC team boss Cyril Abiteboul admits he’s got a lot to learn as he leads the marque's efforts to dethrone Toyota. But could his Formula 1 experience and evident strengths mean he turns out to be an inspired choice?
The ultimate rally car project the WRC is glad COVID killed
Toyota was unstoppable in the 2021 World Rally Championship, with an excellent 75% strike rate from 12 rallies. But in a scary proposition for its rivals, the Japanese marque had built a car for the final year of the previous regulations set which it believes was much faster and could feasibly have crushed the opposition completely. Here the story of its mothballed world-beater
Autosport writers' most memorable moments of 2022
The season just gone was a memorable one for many of our staff writers, who are fortunate enough to cover motorsport around the world. Here are our picks of the best (and in some cases, most eventful) from 2022
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.