Photo Credit: M-Sport After what felt like years of waiting, the brand new and exciting era of the FIA World Rally Championship burst into life on the oldest and most prestigious rally in the world: Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took their fourth consecutive Monte-Carlo win, extending their tally of rally wins to 39 and in the process gifting M-Sport and Ford their first win since Wales Rally GB in 2012. This landmark result continues a strong run for the British firm with debuting new cars, with Marcus Gronholm winning the Monte in 2006 on the new Focus WRC's debut and Mikko Hirvonen claiming the Fiesta WRC's first win on its maiden outing. However, it wasn't plain sailing for the Frenchman, who chucked his Fiesta RS WRC into a ditch on SS3, losing him 40 seconds. Playing catch-up to the flying Thierry Neuville, he was looking uncharacteristically ragged in his pursuit of the Belgian as he adapted to the car he doesn't know well at all, but when Neuville's challenge faltered Ogier was there to scoop up the spoils and deliver a dream result for Malcolm Wilson and his team. Neuville really was the commanding force over the first two and a half days of the 2017 Rallye Monte-Carlo. As others struggled in the challenging grip, Neuville was in a class of one as he threw caution to the wind and opened up a lead of over a minute. However, on the final stage of Saturday he picked up a slow puncture, ran wide and hit some concrete and severely damaged his i20 Coupe's suspension. He limped through to pick up 5 Power Stage points for the fastest time, but he deserved so much more. His pace though bodes very well indeed for the rest of the season. Neuville's demise promoted everybody up the leaderboard, and after Ott Tanak fell short of delivering M-Sport the perfect result with a 1-2 with engine problems, Jari-Matti Latvala sensationally grabbed second overall on his debut in the Toyota Yaris WRC. This is a fantastic result for Toyota Gazoo Racing that matches VW's debut in the WRC, although Latvala was not on the stage winning pace Ogier was back in 2013. Tanak did incredibly well to maintain third place with his engine issues, and showed great maturity to master the conditions without making any mistakes. The reliability issues will be a cause for concern for M-Sport and indeed Citroen who struggled with various issues on both C3's, with Toyota and Hyundai enjoying nigh on faultless runs. Dani Sordo put in a fairly anonymous performance as he cautiously approached the Monte stages, but was almost handed a podium with Tanak's misfortune. He battled Irishman Craig Breen throughout the rally, with the Irish driver only just missing out in last year's DS3. It was a very mature and impressive drive from Breen, especially considering it was in the less powerful and aerodynamic DS3. Sixth was a solid result for the returning Elfyn Evans in the DMACK Fiesta, who had a difficult first day in the third of three M-Sport cars. However, the Welshman set some blinding times claiming DMACK's first ever tarmac stage win on his way to sixth overall. Seventh overall and scoring more points than season favourites Thierry Neuville, Hayden Paddon and Kris Meeke was Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, despite being at the wheel of an R5 Skoda. He obliterated his opposition in WRC2, and will definitely be on the radar of the WRC team managers after another impressive performance. Mikkelsen's Skoda team mate Jan Kopecky came eighth, with Stephane Lefebvre the highest placed Citroen in ninth and previous winner of the event when it was part of the iRC, Bryan Bouffier, tenth in a Fiesta R5. Juho Hanninen started his Monte-Carlo strongly, lying third after Thursday's action but he misjudged the conditions and hit a tree head on on Friday. Kris Meeke, hotly tipped as a contender for this year's championship, had a nightmare of a rally. He approached a left hander too fast on Friday and slid wide, with a hard impact breaking his suspension. Then his C3 WRC suffered mechanical issues on Saturday before a road accident after the competitive action on Saturday put his weekend to an end. It was a disappointing weekend for Citroen, who had conducted the most rigorous testing programme prior to the start of the rally. Lefebvre did salvage something however with a fastest stage time but we were expecting more. Breen finishing as their highest finisher in the now defunct DS3 is not a good showing. Hyundai's car looked very fast and reliable, while Ogier proved M-Sport have always had the ability to create a rally winning car, but just needed the right driver at the wheel. It didn't take long for Ogier to deliver. Toyota had an encouraging run too, a podium on this event was not the target. There is definitely a lot of potential in the Yaris WRC. Another new addition to the 2017 WRC season was the Red Bull TV coverage, which featured live presenting and analysis from Mike Chen, Matthew Wilson and Mark Webber. The coverage received plenty of positive feedback from fans, but although I did enjoy it, I still prefer WRC+'s service principally because it features more highlights from the day's action which I think is the most important part of the TV package. Hayden Paddon is the only top line driver I haven't mentioned yet in this piece, and that's because he was involved in a tragic accident on Thursday. On the very first stage, the Kiwi lost the rear of his i20 Coupe on black ice and crashed into the cliff face, unfortunately striking a spectator. The spectator was rushed to hospital but sadly succumbed to his injuries. My thoughts are with the friends and family of the deceased, Hayden Paddon, John Kennard and the Hyundai Motorsport team.
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January 2018
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