What a dramatic final day!
85ème Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo
Day 4
Hirvonen seals a comfortable win as podium runners hit trouble!
In a chaotic end to the Monte Carlo rally, Mikko Hirvonen remained in control to take a comfortable win, his 16th in his career and his first since Italy 2012! Hirvonen won by just over two minutes from Mattias Ekstrom, who benefitted from two high profile retirements.
Dani Sordo dropped out from 2nd on the first stage of the day, with his Toyota suffering an engine failure. Then on Stage 2, Sebastian Ogier saw his Citroen suffer from a driveshaft failure, putting him out of the rally. Jari Matti Latvala also dropped out of the top with a mechanical problem on the same stage
Hayden Paddon jumped from 5th to 3rd today, taking a podium on Renault's return to the championship. He beat the remaining factory Citroen of Lefebvre in 4th, and Tanak did a good job on Opel's return to the championshipm rounding out the top five. Elfyn Evans finished 6th, having pulled out a 20 second gap over Quentin Gilbert over the course of the day. Martin Prokop was the only factory Mitsubishi not to run into problems in 8th, while David Botka surprised most in 9th place. Despite having troubles on day one, Yoann Bonato recovered to finish 10th.
Teemu Suninen put his miserable day 3 behind him, and finished 11th, beating another Suzuki of Jan Kopecky, who jumped ahead of Loubet on the final stage of the rally. Kris Meeke managed to recover from his day two breakdown to score some points in 14th, while Nasser Al Attiyah brought his Honda home in 15th and the final points position.
Perez was the top Mini in 19th place, Moffett finished 22nd overall, struggling against his Suzuki teammates, Lappi finished 26th, Sirmacis 31st, Neuville 34th, Tidemand 35th, Ostberg 38th, Mikklesen 42nd, Solberg 43rd, Brynildsen 46th, Valousek 47th and Ingram 51st. Nicolas Fuchs was another to retire today.
In the WRC Trophy, Michel Fabre at the ripe old age of 62 shocked everyone by taking a comfortable win, a nearly made it into the top 15. There was a extremely close battle between Grondal and Atkinson for 2nd, which Grondal won, despite Atkinson being faster on the last stage. Siim Plangi finished in a quiet 4th, beating the teammates of Verschueren and Saba. Jaroslaw Koltun finished in 7th, ahead of Bouffier, who had a difficult rally in his B-Spec Hyundai. 9th was Romain Martel, who just about beat a hard charging Marcos Ligato, who rounded out the points.
Power Stage Results
Mikko Hirvonen also won today's power stage, meaning he leaves Monte Carlo with maximum points. Mads Ostberg and Subaru ran him close, just missing out on the max power stage points by 1.5s. Andreas Mikklesen was third in his Renault, ahead of Kris Meeke and Petter Solberg, who had a torrid rally but leaves with a point
Interviews
@The_Laskinator Brilliant result for you and Mikko Hirvonen today, scoring maximum points, can you keep that momentum up at Norway?
@rubaru A very mixed rally for Skoda, but are you guys happy with a double top 10 plus a podium finish, and can we see you guys fighting for the win at Norway?
@Milos Fine start for Renault on their return, do you think you can build on this result in Norway?
@airutonpurosuto8912 How disappointing was it for you to see Ogier retire from the podium so close to the end? Was that made up by Stephane's performance
@Benutzername Tanak had a good rally, but Neuville ran into quite a few problems, do you think it's a quick fix?
@Jimlaad43 Good result for Evans and Ostberg showed very good pace. Could we see Subaru fight for wins this season?
@Márk Lintner Lot's of reliability issues for you this rally, is there a lot of work for you to do to fix these issues? Was you happy with your pace?
@Slyfrequency Probably the surprise of the rally was a very solid result for you guys, how does it feel to start the season on a positive note?
@Dovi design What went wrong for Toyota over the past two days? Is Sordo's pace encouraging for the rest of the season
@TTupsi Quite a scrappy rally for you in the end, but still finished in the points. Good result for a little disappointing?
@Omer Said A point for Al Attiyah after a very sensible run, happy with how he performed?
@Millsy24 Difficult start for Mini at Monaco, will that be a common theme this season or a one off?
I will post tonight the stage times (hopefully), and then preparation of Norway will begin