24.01.2012
Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena survived the short final stage of the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo to collect their sixth win on the winter classic. The Citroën DS3 WRC-MICHELIN pair picked up maximum championship points (victory + Power Stage) to get the defence of their world title off to a flying start. Three different cars finished on the all-MICHELIN podium, with Mini’s Dani Sordo and new Ford recruit Petter Solberg claiming second and third places respectively.
Another princely performance from Loeb saw the world champion go unchallenged from the end of Day 1 (after SS4) until the finish to secure a comfortable win in Monaco today. The Citroën-MICHELIN star inherited number one spot when early leader Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford-MICHELIN) crashed out on SS4. After that, a typically faultless run and some smart tire choices helped Loeb pick up his sixth win in the Principality, following previous successes in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
“It’s been a long rally, with very varied conditions,” he told Best-of-RallyLive. “We used the full range of MICHELIN tires that were available for this event, except the non-studded snow tire. It was important to get the tire call right for Friday morning’s ice in the Vercors Mountains. The choices for Wednesday’s stage were complex, too, but we didn’t do too badly.”
Second place for Dani Sordo will have done a great deal to boost morale in the Mini WRC camp. The Spaniard came out on top of his exciting battle with Ford rival Petter Solberg and survived the Norwegian’s late pressure to finish behind Loeb (+2m45s). He was especially impressed by the performance of his soft-compound MICHELIN Pilot Sport tires during Saturday’s two night-time stages. “I decided to switch from the ‘’hard’ to the ‘soft’ option for SS16 and SS17, which were run in darkness. They gave incredible grip from the start of the loop to the finish. I have rarely experienced grip like that!”
Petter Solberg celebrated his debut in the Fiesta WRC-MICHELIN by finishing in third place, almost a minute clear of fourth-placed Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën-MICHELIN) who consoled himself by claiming two ‘bonus’ points on Sunday’s Power Stage.
The performance of Ford-MICHELIN privateer Evgeny Novikov was one of the week’s pleasant surprises. Despite making his Monte Carlo debut, the Russian youngster kept out of trouble to claim fifth place. He was followed home by veteran François Delecour (6th) who handed the wheel of his Ford Fiesta WRC to his co-driver Dominique Savignoni for today’s short Power Stage. Unsurprisingly, the Corsican finished way down the order, but he is unlikely to forget this ‘gift’ from the former Monte winner who wanted to mark their final WRC outing together!
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22.02.2012 05:18
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