Mikkelsen ends the day on overall 3rd Ogier takes the leadership, EOD Epic battle of the Seb's , resumed on Day 2 of Monte-Carlo rally, ...
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| Mikkelsen ends the day on overall 3rd |
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| Ogier takes the leadership, EOD |
Epic battle of the Seb's, resumed on Day 2 of Monte-Carlo rally, and was totally action packed. Loaded with 3 special stages that were repeated once more after a mid-day service, the rally passed through the Col's around Monaco. The stages had different surface conditions, damp at times, with ice reported at certain sections, and also had dry stretches.
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| Ott Tanak does a good job so far |
Tyre selection was crucial, and the day began with a thorough analysis of possible weather & surface conditions, to select the best set of tyres; along with spare wheels, which would be used later to change for specific stage(s). Studded winter tyres were the preferred option this morning.
Meeke, Loeb, Ostberg and Neuville left with 5 studded tyres. Evans, Tanak, Sordo, Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen had 4 studded and 2 (non-studded) Michelin winter tyres for the morning loop. Kubica and two others were driving on Pirelli rally tyres for the event.
Loeb won the opening stage, while the Pole, Kubica won three stage of the day, until he crashed twice on the last stage to loose nearly three minutes and lost many positions on the ranking.
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| Loeb & Elena trying to fix the damage |
The battle of the Seb's continued, and it was until the 9-time World Rally Champion made mistakes, the reigning Champ, Ogier, who took the advantage to gain back the lead. However in the last stage, Loeb made a costly error on an icy corner; slid off the road and damaged his left-rear wheel & had to give up on the transport section back to the service park. Frantic repairs did help a little, but at the end it was over. He would be returning the next day under super rally format.
Overall - after SS8
| Pos | # | Driver | Time | Diff Prev | Diff 1st |
| 1. | 1 |  S. OGIER | 1:52:07.4 | ||
| 2. | 2 |  J. LATVALA | 1:53:52.8 | +1:45.4 | +1:45.4 |
| 3. | 9 |  A. MIKKELSEN | 1:54:42.2 | +49.4 | +2:34.8 |
| 4. | 6 |  O. TANAK | 1:54:51.8 | +9.6 | +2:44.4 |
| 5. | 12 | M. OSTBERG | 1:55:10.3 | +18.5 | +3:02.9 |
| 6. | 5 |  E. EVANS | 1:55:22.6 | +12.3 | +3:15.2 |
| 7. | 7 |  T. NEUVILLE | 1:55:37.3 | +14.7 | +3:29.9 |
| 8. | 8 |  D. SORDO | 1:56:10.4 | +33.1 | +4:03.0 |
| 9. | 21 |  M. PROKOP | 1:57:07.0 | +56.6 | +4:59.6 |
| 10. | 14 | H. SOLBERG | 1:58:46.3 | +1:39.3 | +6:38.9 |
Four stages don the list of specials for Day 3 ,starting at 9.17 am local
time, and with an epic 51.7 km marathon stage as the day's second test. After the mid-day service, the day's first stage is repeated and ends with the classic Sisteron-Thoard as final test for the day.
Action so far in videos!
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