WRC - 2013 | Round 1 - Rallye Monte-Carlo, Monaco

81° Rally Monte-Carlo marked the opening of the new season Monaco, this week. Running of the rally over asphalted roads, during ice-cold win...

81° Rally Monte-Carlo marked the opening of the new season Monaco, this week. Running of the rally over asphalted roads, during ice-cold winter is what sets this historic rally a special place in the top level rally championship. From here onwards WRC travels across the globe in almost all the continents, in 12 different countries to crown a winner at the end of the annual season.

This year is also one of the most anticipated, reasons both due the Sebastien Loeb / Daniel Elena calling it time to move out of the series as a full-time competitor, and also with the entry of the Motorsport wing of world's biggest auto-maker 'das auto' Volkswagen Group, with their flagship car, VW Polo R WRC lined for the attack in the championship.

Day 1 : The Beginning

Day's Overall Rally Leader - Sebastien Loeb

Monaco - Flag

First stage of first rally of the first season, especially for VW Motorsport and Sebasien Ogier, seals it with the debut stage win! 'Seb-the-Loeb', however takes it away in the SS 2 with over 10s and becomes the new leader.

First half of the day saw what 'WE' had expected, the fight between Seb's. It was Ogier took the maiden stage win for VW Polo R WRC with its competitive stage debut, shaving off 3.7s to Loeb. Neat! However, it was Loeb who answered that in the SS2 by a clean 10.4s and showing who the senior is!

Volkswagen Polo R WRC - Latvala

Second half of the day, was the beginning of the real drama, although while S.Loeb maintained his lead throughout SS3 & SS4. It was the timing system that went haywire. Sistemas Integrales de Telecomunicacion (SIT), is the new timing & tracking system provider who took over this season from Stage 1 Tech. Also, there was some lack of real-time information for the followers, who seemed to be in trouble for some reason or the other.  It was the Live-Text that was missing in the parental site, www.wrc.com. But there were a hoard of tweeters who did the job, but it was questionable of the reliability of the official duty. Hope FIA / WRC will fix it soon!

Neuville Fiesta's - Broken Tie-Rod

Thierry Neuville was the first to be listed on the retirement list after damaging his left front wheel of his Qatar M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC, no super-rally here.



The tracking system had also caused some issues on the first loop, when Loeb's car was falsely registered as having stopped on stage one and Rally Officials asked Citroen Racing to disconnect sensors in Loeb and Dani Sordo's cars. "For safety reasons and after consultation with the FIA technical delegate, the stewards permit to disconnect the boot and bonnet sensors of the GPS tracking system in car #1 and car #10 as this item apparently blocks the sending of signals from the GPS safety tracking system in these cars," explained a stewards' statement.



Rankings after day 1.

  Pos    Time      | Diff.Prev   | Diff.Leader |  Driver (competition no)

1. 1:39:49.0  |  +00:00.0   |  +00:00.0     |  S. LOEB (1)


2. 1:41:09.3  |  +01.20.3   |  +01:20.3     |  S. OGIER (8)


3. 1:41:35.7  |  +00:26.4   |  +01:46.7     |  M. HIRVONEN (2)


4. 1:41:50.2  |  +00:14.5   |  +02:01.2     |  D. SORDO (10)


5. 1:42:21.2  |  +00:31.0   |  +02:32.2     |  J. LATVALA (7)


6. 1:42:39.6  |  +00:18.4   |  +02:50.6     |  E. NOVIKOV  (5)


7. 1:42:44.1  |  +00:04.5   |  +02:55.1     |  M. OSTBERG (4)


8. 1:42:46.1  |  +00:02.0   |  +02:57.1     |  B. BOUFFIER (22)


9. 1:42:52.5  |  +00:06.4   |  +03:03.5     |  J. HANNINEN (6)


10. 1:46:00.3  |  +03:07.8   |  +06:11.3     |  M. PROKOP (21)

Drama or issues, Day 1 ended of the season opening rally with a bang! Here is the day's video highlights.

_ ______ ____________ _ ____________ ______ _

Day 2 : Loeb the Leader

Sebastien Loeb - Citroen DS3 WRC

Sebastien Ogier - VW Polo R WRC

Sebastien Loeb continued to dominate on the second day of Rally Monte-Carlo, with a comfortable lead of 1m34.8s. It was more of a controlled aggression by the driver/codrivers to tackle the tricky and mostly frozen twisty narrow mountain roads of Monaco.

Today first stage, SS5 was won by VW driver Sebastien Ogier in his Polo R WRC, while the Russian Evgeny Novikov claimed SS6 in his works Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Juha Hanninen went fastest and won his debut WRC stage win in another Qatar M-Sport WRT's, Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

Dani Sordo did not have any stage win, but rather a consistent drive to ensure he finished third overall by the end of day, i.e., SS-10.

  Pos    Time      | Diff.Prev   | Diff.Leader |  Driver (comp. no)     | Car                     

1. 3:16:29.1  |  +00:00.0   |  +00:00.0     |  S. LOEB (1)               | Citroen DS3 WRC


2. 3:18:09.9  |  +01.34.8   |  +01:34.8     |  S. OGIER (8)             | VW Polo R WRC


3. 3:19:07.1  |  +01:03.2   |  +02:38.0     |  D. SORDO (10)         | Citroen DS3 WRC


4. 3:19:22.3  |  +00:15.2   |  +02:53.2     |  E. NOVIKOV  (5)       | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


5. 3:19:51.8  |  +00:29.5   |  +03:22.7     |  M. HIRVONEN (2)     | Citroen DS3 WRC


6. 3:20:12.3  |  +00:20.5   |  +03:43.2     |  J. LATVALA (7)          | VW Polo R WRC


7. 3:20:40.4  |  +00:28.1   |  +04:11.3     |  J. HANNINEN (6)       | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


8. 3:22:14.5  |  +01:34.1   |  +05:45.4     |  B. BOUFFIER (22)    | Citroen DS3 WRC


9. 3:22:18.1  |  +00:03.6   |  +05:49.0     |  M. OSTBERG (4)      | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


10. 3:30:44.7  |  +08:26.6   |  +14:15.6     |  M. PROKOP (21)      | Ford Fiesta RS WRC

The broadcast video highlights of the day, here it is.

_ ______ ____________ _ ____________ ______ _

Day 3 : Loeb, the Invincible

Sebastien Loeb was going strength-to-strength, with every passing stage & day. Nothing new though! He extended his lead with a few more seconds to Volkswagen Polo R WRC driver, Sebastien Ogier. Finally after some great crashes and more wild moments, it is the young Russian, Evgeny Novikov who is in the third spot on the over all leaderboard after SS13, after the Citroen DS3 WRC driver Dani Sordoi slips to 4th overall.

Mikko Hirvonen says, "Not very confident with the conditions, was pushing & nearly went off. So later, backed off the pace", so drops to 6th overall by the day's final stage. It was a good recovering day for Jari Matti-Latvala, who finally managed to climb up to 5th overall with impressive performance of his new VW Polo R WRC car. With only 3 stages on the Itinerary, the cars & crews headed to the service park at Valence, Monaco.

Sebastien Ogier - VW Polo R WRC

St Jean en Royans - La Cime du Mas stage (33.19 km, SS-11) was the first stage of the day, and the stage win was taken by the nine-time-world-champ. Ogier managed to keep the margin of win narrow with just 1.5s down Loeb. M-Sport chief driver, Mads Ostberg was third quickest, while the Russian Roulette who was quicker than the rest of the field. With the Austrian Ilka Minor in the navigator seat, Novikov seems to be more composed these days, but how can we forget the strong foundation laid by his most experienced former codriver, Denis Giraudet.

Mads Ostberg - Ford Fiesta RS WRC

After a quick service, SS-12, the return of the classic Monte stages from the yester year's, St Nazaire le Desert - La Motte Chalancon (22.11 km) was the next stage where the Qatar M-Sport WRT driver Mads Ostberg who passed the fastest, and his team-mate Novikov did another good time behind. Mikko Hirvonen was quicker than both the Seb's, who were down at 4th and 5th. Latvala struggled with his new car and was little more than 10s down the stage leader.

Sebastien Loeb - Citroen DS3 WRC

SS-13 , Sisteron - Thoard (36.7 km) was the longest for the day and once again, it was Loeb who was the quickest. Latvala showed his speed here and finished the day's last stage 2nd quickest, 8.7s down the legend. Ogier was third quickest, proved Polo R WRC car has the speed, and it is just the km's that needed in the real-test on the WRC stages to come.



A little more than 108 km was left for tomorrow, to conclude the rally. Five more stages was left for the event to finish, with three runs of the super-freezing Col-de-Turini, Moulinet - La Bollene, [23.54 km] and two runs of Lantosque - Luceram - [19 km], with the second one being the Power Stage.

 Pos.      Time    | Diff.Prev   | Diff.Leader |  Driver (comp. no)    | Car                     

1. 4:16:29.1  |  +00:00.0   |  +00:00.0     |  S. LOEB (1)              | Citroen DS3 WRC


2. 4:18:29.3  |  +01.47.4   |  +01:47.4     |  S. OGIER (8)            | VW Polo R WRC


3. 4:20:01.8  |  +01:32.5   |  +03:19.9     |  E. NOVIKOV  (5)     | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


4. 4:20:03.5  |  +00:01.7   |  +03:21.6     |  D. SORDO (10)        | Citroen DS3 WRC


5. 4:20:46.8  |  +00:43.3   |  +04:04.9     |  J. LATVALA (7)       | VW Polo R WRC


6. 4:21:01.0  |  +00:14.2   |  +04:19.1     |  M. HIRVONEN (2)  | Citroen DS3 WRC


7. 4:21:57.4  |  +00:56.4   |  +05:15.5     |  J. HANNINEN (6)    | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


8. 4:23:00.1  |  +01:02.7   |  +06:18.2     |  M. OSTBERG (4)     | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


9. 4:25:02.6  |  +02:02.5   |  +08:20.7     |  B. BOUFFIER (22)   | Citroen DS3 WRC


10. 4:35:30.7  |  +10:28.1   |  +18:48.8     |  M. PROKOP (21)     | Ford Fiesta RS WRC

Loeb was leading with nearly 2mins ahead of Ogier in second, the video highlights.

_ ______ ____________ _ ____________ ______ _

Day 4 : The Carnage & The Winners!

Sebastien Loeb - The Winner

Yet again it was won by the nine-timer,  Sebastien Loeb. It showed what he is really made of to make him what he is really worth. The younger Seb-the-junior-Ogier, [much calmer these days] who knew what his mission was & always maintained his arm's length to finish in a healthy second place. It was Dani Sordo, the re-recruit for Citroen who came third in a fantastic battle that was going on him and the young Russian gun Evgeny Novikov.

Latvala's VW Polo R WRC - after crash

Jari Matti-Latvala crashed very bad, in the opening stage of the day, so did the third placed Evgeny Novikov who ripped off the rear left wheel. Juho Hanninen went off the road, this time not able to get back and retired. That makes Mads Ostberg the lone survivor for M-Sport's new team QMWRT, who finished in 6th overall.



The final result board was like this.

 Pos.      Time    | Diff.Prev   | Diff.Leader |  Driver (comp. no)      | Car                     

1. 4:16:29.1  |  +00:00.0   |  +00:00.0     |  S. LOEB (1)                 | Citroen DS3 WRC


2. 4:18:29.3  |  +01.47.4   |  +01:47.4     |  S. OGIER (8)               | VW Polo R WRC


3. 4:20:01.8  |  +01:32.5   |  +03:19.9     |  D. SORDO (10)            | Citroen DS3 WRC


4. 4:20:03.5  |  +00:01.7   |  +03:21.6     |  M. HIRVONEN (2)        | Citroen DS3 WRC


5. 4:20:46.8  |  +00:43.3   |  +04:04.9     |  B. BOUFFIER (22)       | Citroen DS3 WRC


6. 4:21:01.0  |  +00:14.2   |  +04:19.1     |  M. OSTBERG (4)         | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


7. 4:21:57.4  |  +00:56.4   |  +05:15.5     |  M. PROKOP (21)         | Ford Fiesta RS WRC


8. 4:23:00.1  |  +01:02.7   |  +06:18.2     |  S. WIEGAND (32)         | Skoda Fabia S2000


9. 4:25:02.6  |  +02:02.5   |  +08:20.7     |  O. BURRI (42)              | PEUGEOT 207 S2000


10. 4:35:30.7  |  +10:28.1   |  +18:48.8     |  M. KOSCIUSZKO (12)  | Ford Fiesta RS WRC

See you in Sweden, in less than 3 weeks!