Rallye Monte-Carlo Day Three

2012 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
RALLYE MONTE-CARLO

20.01.2012

As the FIA World Rally Championship crews head to Monaco after Friday’s last competitive stage, reigning World Champion Sébastien Loeb is in a commanding position at the head of the leaderboard of Rallye Monte-Carlo. Behind him, Petter Solberg and Dani Sordo started the day in the thick of an intense battle for second. However, tyre choice once again proved critical and by the end of stage 13 Sordo had claimed more than a minute advantage over his rival.

Today’s route left Valence this morning for two stages, before returning for mid-day service. From there, the competitors had one more stage to contest before heading to the Monaco base for the weekend. While Loeb has failed to win any of the day’s three stages, he has extended his advantage to two minutes 12.4 seconds as, once again, tyre choices were optimised for conditions in particular stages. Solberg moved into second after the opening stage, having set fastest time, but then lost out to Sordo in the following stage, dropping him back to third. In the final stage, the Norwegian also cut a corner too tightly, puncturing the front left tyre on his Fiesta RS WRC. Sordo therefore takes a one minute 06.8 second advantage overnight.

Behind the leading trio, Mikko Hirvonen has shone in the Citroën DS3 WRC, the Finn setting fastest times in stage 12 and 13 to inch within 23.8 seconds of Solberg. Evgeny Novikov continues to impress, the Russian fifth overnight and with a healthy lead over the legendary Monte-Carlo driver François Delecour. Pierre Campana, driving the second MINI John Cooper Works WRC is seventh, the Frenchman happy with his performance today.

Saturday’s route is a classic with two loops of two tests in the Alpes Maritimes, including the legendary Col de Turini.

Rallye Monte-Carlo – Unofficial Results after Day 3

1.   Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena
2.   Dani Sordo/Carlos Del Barrio
3.   Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson
4.   Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen
5.   Evgeny Novikov/Denis Giraudet
6.   François Delecour/D Savignoni
7.   Pierre Campana/S de Castelli
8.   Ott Tänak/Kuldar Sikk
9.   Per-Gunnar Andersson/E Axelsson
10. Armindo Araujo/Miguel Ramalho

Citroën DS3 WRC
MINI Cooper Works WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Citroën DS3 WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
MINI Cooper Works WRC
Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Proton Satria S2000
MINI Cooper Works WRC

3 hr 31 min 25.2sec
3 hr 33 min 37.6sec
3 hr 34 min 44.4sec
3 hr 35 min 08.2sec
3 hr 35 min 53.4sec
3 hr 38 min 04.3sec
3 hr 39 min 10.3sec
3 hr 40 min 10.0sec
3 hr 44 min 46.0sec
3 hr 46 min 05.9sec