The 2024 season of the World Rally Championship (WRC) is currently underway, with Elfyn Evans leading from the beginning after the first stages of the Monte Carlo Rally. The event started on Thursday with two night stages, continuing with six special stages on Friday.
In the mountainous night yesterday, Evans (Toyota) was the fastest in SS1 (Thoard/Saint-Geniez) and SS2 (Bayons/Bréziers), finishing the day with a 15.1s lead over Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). The Belgian driver reduced that gap at the start of Friday morning in Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes/La Bâtie-Neuve, being 5.3s faster than his rival.
Then, Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) imposed himself in SS4, being one second faster than Evans, repeating the feat in SS5 (La Bréole/Selonnet 1) – this time 11.2s ahead of his teammate. The French driver thus took the lead of the rally, surpassing Neuville.
The Hyundai driver recovered with a victory in the first stage of the afternoon, which was another pass in Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes/La Bâtie-Neuve, with Evans finishing third. He lost time again in the following stage, in which Neuville set the pace once again.
In the last stage of the day, for SS8, Ogier beat Neuville by 2.9s and Evans finished third, 4.9s behind. The trio, who are clearly ahead of the rest, ended Friday separated by 16.1s. Evans has not been dethroned from the lead yet, but his advantage over Ogier has decreased to 4.5s. Neuville is third.
In fourth place is Ott Tänak, who in his first rally since returning to Hyundai is already 1m13.6s behind the leader. The top five is completed by Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford), who is back in the main class of the WRC and is currently putting in a solid performance to fight for a top-five finish.
In WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger, after Pepe López (Skoda) set the pace last night, the Spaniard engaged in an exciting battle with Nikolay Gryazin (Citroën) throughout Friday, sharing stage victories in the classes. Gryazin leads by 1.3s ahead of López. Yohan Rossel (Citroën) is third in WRC2, while in WRC2 Challenger the podium is currently occupied by Nicolas Ciamin (Hyundai), almost two minutes behind the leader.
Only two drivers are competing in WRC3. Jan Černý (Ford) is clearly the strongest: he has a 5m10.2s advantage and has only lost one stage to Ghjuvanni Rossi (Renault), who was the fastest in the category right from the start.
Top ten overall after SS8:
