Ott Tänak topped the timesheets in WRC 2024’s first shakedown of the season at Rallye Monte Carlo.
Tänak clocked a time of 2:00.5 in Wednesday afternoon’s 3.28 km long ‘Route de la Garde’ shakedown. The Estonian’s time was a tenth of a second faster than Toyota’s Eflyn Evans.
Thierry Neuville was third fastest, 0.8s behind Tänak and 0.1s ahead of nine-time Monte Carlo Rally winner Sébastien Ogier.
Takamoto Katsuta made it three Toyota’s in the top 5, 3.1s off Tänak’s leading pace.
The top 5 drove their best times during their first run through shakedown as the sunset. Andreas Mikkelsen and Grégoire Munster set their best times in their second respective run, while Adrien Fourmaux set his best time in his third and final run.
Mikkelsen was sixth fastest, 2 seconds behind Katsuta and three-tenths ahead of Munster. Fourmaux faced technical problems with his Ford Puma Rally1 during his first run-through and managed to do two runs afterwards. The Frenchman couldn’t beat one of the Rally1 crews and was eight-fastest, 0.7s adrift of his team-mate Munster.
Citroën drivers Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel were the leading Rally2 drivers in their Citroën C3 Rally2s. Oliver Solberg was the third-fastest Rally2 driver in P11 overall. The Swede was 1.5s adrift of Gryazin’s leading pace. Sami Pajari set the leading Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 pace. The Finn was fifth-fastest in the Rally2 class with the all-new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, 5.2s slower than Gryazin.
The 2024 WRC gets officially underway tomorrow with two stages scheduled, traditionally run in the darkness. SS1 starts at 20:35 local time (19:35 GMT, 14:35 EST)
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WRC Rallye Monte Carlo 2024 – Shakedown results
| # | Drivers | Car | Time / Diff. to 1st |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tänak / Järveoja | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 2:00.5 |
| 2. | Evans / Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +0.1 |
| 3. | Neuville / Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +0.8 |
| 4. | Ogier / Landais | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +0.9 |
| 5. | Katsuta / Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +3.1 |
| 6. | Mikkelsen / Eriksen | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +5.1 |
| 7. | Munster / Louka | Ford Puma Rally1 | +5.4 |
| 8. | Fourmaux / Coria | Ford Puma Rally1 | +6.1 |
| 9. | Gryazin / Aleksandrov | Citroën C3 Rally2 | +8.3 |
| 10. | Rossel / Dunand | Citroën C3 Rally2 | +8.8 |
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport