Rallye Monte Carlo / Rally review
They started their journey in the pouring rain but while climbing the meandering mountain roads things changed. Ogier confessed: “in one of the first
serious corners I skidded of the road and ended in a brick wall.” The super
soft slicks were clearly no match for the conditions. By the time he actually
hit the wall the Volkswagen had already slowed down considerably, mainly
because the initial speed was not that fast. Thierry Neuville, next on the
road, was fastest after the first split, but not very much further he encountered similar conditions to what Ogier found. He under steered from the
road and in a desperate attempt to over steer the skidding Hyundai the rear
of the car met with a telegraph pole. The bodywork was redesigned and the
telemetry of the rear wheels was revised in such a way that continuing was
out of the question. And one of the peculiarities of Monte being that they
don’t allow Rally 2, this meant that after less than 10 kilometres Neuville’s
first quest in the Hyundai was over. The rest of the morning was completely
dependant on the individual decisions as far as tyre choice was concerned.
Obviously lady luck also played her part.
Surprises
Robert Kubica was the biggest surprise. He won the first two stages and
amazed the whole WRC world with his speed. On the third test however
20/40
Mads Ostberg quickly adopted to his new machinery and finished on a respectable
fourth place on his maiden outing in the Citroën DS3
privateer Bryan Bouffier in an M-Sport backed Fiesta passed Kubica. He
fitted a snow tyre on a front wheel and diagonally opposite it on the rear
he did the same. This strange mixture proved to be the right thing as he
was not the only one who raced to the top of the leaderboard. Kris Meeke
adopted the same strategy and ended up as runner up. More than most
people expected of the Irishman. Another revelation was Elfyn Evans, scoring a second spot on the third stage. Meanwhile Dani Sordo was doing well
also. In his brand new Hyundai he simply mingled with the top drivers and
was in third spot of the leaderboard halfway through the day. But en route
from stage four to stage five he suddenly had to park his car next tot the
road. All electricity was drained from his battery. There was an alternator
problem that could not be solved on the roadside. So before the end of the
day both Hyundai were out of contention. A big pity, because now we don’t
know where they are compared to the competition. Both cars seemed fast
enough but in the crazy circumstances of the Monte this is really hard to
judge. Two other important teams, François Delecour and Martin Prokop
did not make it to the end of day one...
Kris Meeke surprised everyone by driving a very solid run. It once again showed he is
fast, but now it also shows he can adapt his driving style to the circmstances.