WRC
The 2017 rallying season begins with some familiar names winning the Monte Carlo and Sweden rallies
HELD ON JANUARY 19-22, defending champion Sebastien Ogier racked up his first victory with M-Sport on his very first outing in the Ford Fiesta WRC at the Rally Monte Carlo. Meanwhile, Jari-Matti Latvala got the new Toyota Yaris WRC on to the podium in second while M-Sport managed a third place finish as well, courtesy Ott Tanak.
This season was always going to be interesting — VW pulled out and that means Hyundai has the best chance yet to grab the title. M-Sport picked up Ogier, and Toyota and Citroen have both made a comeback. All this, plus the new rules that allow cars to have more power and more aggressive aero means this season is going to be special.
The season started with a bit of a downer when Haydon Paddon’s Hyundai i20 WRC hit a spectator who eventually succumbed to his injuries. It led to the first stage being cancelled and Paddon withdrawing from the rally. His teammate Neuville managed to secure the lead at the end of the first day, ahead of Ogier by 7.8 seconds.
Ogier was caught out by ice on the second day and went in to a ditch, dropping him to ninth. Meanwhile, his M-Sport teammate Tanak took over second place on SS4 after Citroen’s Kris Meeke damaged his suspension. Neuville continued in the lead, ahead of Tanak and Toyota’s Juho Hanninen with Ogier climbing up to fourth within one stage of his incident. He eventually made it to third when Hanninen retired. While he lost a bit of pace getting used to the new M-Sport Ford Fiesta, Ogier performed well on the last two stages of day two to take over second place from Tanak.
Neuville stayed in the lead on day three, with Ogier 51 seconds behind. But suspension damage on the last stage of the day forced Neuville out of the running, handing the lead to Ogier. The final day had the potential for an M-Sport one-two finish, but an engine problem on Tanak’s car saw him drop down to second giving up second place to the Toyota of Latvala. SS16 was cancelled due to safety reasons, and Ogier kept himself out front until the end. He proved that the M-Sport team was there to stay and so did the Toyota, who managed a podium on their first outing in 16 years. Going ahead, Hyundai as well as Citroen have their work cut out for them.