Rallye Monte Carlo - 3rd Day - 1st Loop: Ogier in control as M-Sport drivers hit trouble [+video]

At the end of morning loop of Saturday, Sebastien Ogier is still leading Rallye Monte Carlo with Kalle Rovanpera and Thierry Neuville following him.

Sebastien Ogier remains on top of the overall classification and his lead is under control as he was not the quickest driver on the opening stage today. However, he set the fastest time in Stage 10, but he did not push enough on the final stage of the loop as he did not want to pick up a puncture due to the cuts.

Kalle Rovanpera is still second overall and increased his gap from the third Thierry Neuville as he was the fastest driver in Stage 9 and 11.

The Belgian driver completes the top three and his gap from the 2022 World Rally Champion is at 12,4 seconds, but he still complained about the movement of his i20N.

Elfyn Evans climbed into fourth place overall after the end of Stage 10 taking advantage over Ott Tanak's problems there.

The M-Sport driver dropped one position and is now fifth as he said at the end of SS10 that he had no power steering after 3Km into that stage resulting in dropping 9,2 seconds in comparison with Evans. Finally, it must be mentioned that he was working on his car on the road section before the start of SS11 with the view of fixing the broken power steering while he said that the issue is an internal and the Puma is driveable after the repairs he did.

Takamoto Katsuta stole the sixth place from Dani Sordo at the end of Stage 9 as the Spaniard could not find the pace to defend his position and lost the hybrid power in Stage 11.

Esapekka Lappi remains eighth overall, but he is happier with his new car than yesterday as he said that he found more pace. It must be mentioned that he was the fifth fastest driver on the penultimate stage of the loop.

Pierre-Louis Loubet was forced to retire at the end of SS9 after his Puma having a heavy damage to right rear including bent wheel. This incident happened when he hit a barrier on the outside of the final corner of that stage. Despite the fact that he was able to change the damaged rear link arm, his Puma's hub brocket was also broken.

📺 WRC: Pierre-Louis Loubet’s Saturday is over ❌

A big hit on the right rear corner of his Ford Puma means he can’t continue 💥pic.twitter.com/skXJgMfpW2

— Autosport (@autosport) January 21, 2023

 

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after SS11: 

Photo Credits: Toyota