Sebastien Ogier’s co-driver Julien Ingrassia has sustained an injury to his right arm, after an accident in the last of today’s stages in the season opening Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Sebastien Loeb won five stages and greatly increased his rally lead today, while his closest rivals Dani Sordo and Petter Solberg spent the day’s six stages constantly swapping places in the other podium places.
The script was already written – Sebastien Loeb, the master of the Monte, would end the first day by comfortably leading his rivals. For a while however, Jari-Matti Latvala seemed determined to turn the rally on its head by setting the script on fire.
The Monte may be one of the most prestigious events on the WRC calendar, however this is the first time in four years the world’s greatest drivers will have faced the imfamous rally, with the legendary Col du Turini once again included on the route of this year’s event.
World Series by Renault regular Nelson Panciatici will make his WRC debut at this month’s Rally Monte Carlo, behind the wheel of an Automeca Citroen DS3 R3.
RACB Driver of the Year Thierry Neuville will race in the WRC next year, as part of a 10 rally deal with the Citroen Junior Team, on the back of two wins in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge this year with partner marque Peugeot.
Nasser Al-Attiyah will become Citroën Racing’s third driver after signing a deal to drive a factory-spec DS3 WRC from Rally Sweden onwards.
After weeks of uncertainty, Ford has commited itself to the World Rally Championship for the next two years, and have simultaneously announced Petter Solberg as their second driver in a one year deal.
As uncertainty continues to loom over Ford’s future in the WRC, the FIA is expected to extend the WRC entry deadline in the hope of securing an entry from them for next season.
“We executed right and I think we did what we had to all day and we run really smart,” said Montoya, who had been close to victory two weeks ago at Indy but lost when his strategy didn’t play out in the final stop.
“Yesterday we had a good talk with Chip [Ganassi, car owner]. The last few weeks have been really frustrating for the whole team because we’ve been so close to victory and it seemed to keep slipping away. And to come out here today and get the job done the way we did today, it was big. To tell you the truth I feel more relieved than happy right now.”
As Peugeot continues to bemoan Skoda’s recent domination of the IRC, Freddy Loix further compounded their misery by leading a Skoda podium lockout at the Rali Vinho Madeira – while the other frontrunners were nowhere to be seen.
David Pinkney will start in a disappointing 14th place for tomorrow’s opening BTCC race, after the sudden downpour before qualifying left him little time to prepare an adequate wet weather strategy.
Team Aon has had the car to beat in qualifying lately, so it was a surprise to see a less than dominant qualifying performance from the team’s pair of Ford Focuses. Nevertheless, through the driving rain Tom Chilton managed to put his car 3rd on the grid for tomorrow’s opening race – but team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole failed to set a time and will start from the back.
Peugeot Sport team boss Olivier Quesnel has warned the French manufacturer will pull out of the IRC completely if Skoda are allowed to enter as a full factory-supported team next season, claiming it is unfair to the other competitors in the series.
As the scorching sunlight beat down on the spectators lining the Funchal seafront, Kris Meeke sprinted his way to victory in the…
Finnish wildcard and IRC points leader Juho Hanninen led a Skoda rout of the new for 2010 class, doing a Citroen by locking out the top four places.
There were both (quite literally) highs and lows for Ford this weekend, while as Jari-Matti Latvala fended off an army of Citroen…
