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Last year’s winner waited until mid-morning on Friday to set his first fastest time of the 92ndMonte-Carlo Rally: best time for Sébastien Ogier in his black Toyota Yaris on the first pass of the day between Champcella and Saint-Clément (17.87km), to come within just three seconds of Neuville, who lost a handful of seconds in a spin.
“I think it’s difficult to go faster with this starting position (the same as Thursday evening, based on the 2023 championship standings), but in this stage there was a little less dirt on the road,” reacted the eight-time world champion after the 693rd fastest time of his WRC career.
“I don’t understand. I lost the rear, suddenly. I was surprised,” said Neuville, who chose the right spot for his spin: a dry, flat field in which he didn’t lose too much time. He reversed and started again, losing 9 seconds to Ogier, just when the Belgian driver could aim for a second fastest time in a row.
Evans stays ahead
The rally leader is still Elfyn Evans (Toyota), who has switched to management mode. He still holds a 18.8-second lead over Neuville going into SS5, the last of the first loop, and 21.9 seconds over Ogier. “The grip was very low in some places. It wasn’t easy and maybe I was too careful,” admitted the Welshman.
The route of SS4 was varied, dry on the whole, and the numerous spectators were very disciplined, well protected by the ACM marshals and hundreds of metres of tape. Behind Ogier and Evans, Ott Tänak (Hyundai) regained his confidence after his small mistake on SS3. With the 3rd fastest time, he moved back to 4th overall, ahead of Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford), the Frenchman happy with his new set-up. But the Estonian, the 2019 world champion, found the road “dirty”, which encouraged him to drive “clean”.
In the chasing pack, the battle continued to rage between three supporting roles in this suspenseful play: Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) and Grégoire Munster (M-Sport Ford), very close in performance at the end of this SS4. A really superb stage, from start to finish.
