WRC
Hyundai's Thierry Neuville takes the opening round of the 2020 WRC season, beating Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier, as reigning champion Ott Tänak crashes out in Monte Carlo.
Hyundai's Theirry Neuville left it late to stamp his authority on the Monte Carlo Rally, taking the overall lead on the final day of the event to win by more than 12 seconds over the Toyota pairing of Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans.
For reigning world champion Ott Tänak, his 2020 Monte Carlo Rally will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. The Estonian suffered one of the biggest accidents seen in recent World Rally Championship history on Stage 4. His Hyundai i20 left the road 9.2km into the 20.68km Saint-Clement-sur-Durance to Freissinieres stage and slammed into rocks by the side of the road, before rolling down a steep incline.
Neuville briefly held the lead of the rally, but Evans seized control on Stage 4, taking the overall lead and holding it until Friday's final stage, when team-mate Ogier snatched the overnight lead by 1.2 seconds, with Neuville in third.
The battle for the lead between the new Toyota team-mates continued on Saturday morning, as Evans wrestled the lead back from six-time WRC champ Ogier – the pair even clocked the same time on Saturday's Stage 11 – to go into Sunday just under five seconds ahead.
Sunday's Stage 14 was Neuville's time to shine and the Belgian topped the overall order to open up a considerable four-second lead over Evans. He extended it to 11 seconds one stage later, as Evans's second place came under threat again from team-mate Ogier.
There was drama on the final Power Stage, as Neuville claimed the five points for winning the stage ahead of Ogier, with just 0.016s separating the pair. Ogier also managed to overhaul team-mate Evans to claim second place overall on the final stage.
The result gives Neuville the maximum 30 points and the Hyundai driver tops the WRC standings heading to the next round in Sweden.
WRC Monte Carlo Rally results
First championship blow struck by Neuville
Hyundai's Thierry Neuville is clearly fed up of being the bridesmaid of the WRC and signalled his intent to become the 2020 WRC champion with a measured and stylish performance in the hills above Monaco to win his first Monte Carlo Rally.
The Belgian, who's finished runner-up in the WRC five times since 2013, left it until the final day to show his speed and precision on narrow mountain roads laden with melting snow and ice. He won the final three stages, including the final Power Stage, to take maximum points.
"We had an incredible feeling the last couple of days and we were able to catch back the time," revealed Neuville. "We've been chasing this win for a while, but we showed our performance this weekend and it's a great way to start the season."
Neuville briefly led the rally on the opening day, but had no answer for the pace of the Toyota pair of Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier, who swapped the lead, until Neuville managed to make his tyres work on the final day and find the speed necessary to overturn a sizeable deficit.
On Saturday's Stage 10, Neuville was third and 16.6 seconds off Evans's lead. Six stages later, he had a lead of 12.6 seconds over new second place man Ogier to deny the French driver his seventh consecutive Monte Carlo victory and become the first driver from Belgium to win the rally.
Toyota's new team-mates stage epic duel
Before Thierry Neuville found the scintillating pace that won him his first Monte Carlo Rally, the opening event of the 2020 season was all about the battle between Toyota's new boys, Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans.
Six-time winner of both the WRC title and the Monte Carlo Rally, Ogier started his home event as he often does by winning the opening Thursday evening stage. However, in the daylight on Stage 4, it would be his team-mate Evans who would lead the rally up until Friday's final stage, where Ogier went into the overnight service park leading by just 1.2 seconds.
Saturday was a thriller. A brilliant performance on a changing surface by Evans on Stage 10 saw the Welsh driver reclaim the rally lead, which then see-sawed between the Toyota drivers, with nothing to separate them after Stage 11.
Evans eventually ended up third, his best result at the Monte Carlo Rally, and showed that he'll be more than a match for his illustrious team-mate
"We were happy until last night (Saturday). I can't say I have been happy today," reflected Evans. "It never really clicked and I'm not sure of the reason. There's some work to do, but overall a positive weekend."
Tänak starts title defence in worst possible way
Ott Tänak started his WRC title defence looking to win his first Monte Carlo Rally with his new Hyundai team, but ended it "happy to be alive."
Tänak started the 2020 Monte Carlo Rally with solid, if unspectacular, pace and after Thursday's two evening stages, the Estonian was fourth overall. He then ended Friday's opening stage just over 10 seconds off overall leader Thierry Neuville.
It would be 9.2km into Stage 4 that Tänak's rally would spectacularly come to an end, as his Hyundai i20 WRC car seemed to bottom out at around 185kph and drift to the right before hitting roadside rocks and smashing nose-first into trees and then rolling for several seconds down an embankment.
Both Tänak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja were lucky to escape serious injury and the 2019 world champion later commented, "It wasn't the start of the season that we were looking for, but fortunately we are both okay thanks to the safety equipment."
WRC Drivers' Standings (After Rd1 of 13)
