Ogier extends advantage as Mikkelsen drops out

Sebastien Ogier has continued to build his lead at Rallye Monte-Carlo with a 40-second advantage over new Toyota signing Ott Tanak.

Defending World Rally Champion Ogier claimed the overnight lead with victories on the pair of opening stage wins and has maintained his momentum with a further win on SS4 Roussieux. As a result, the M-Sport Ford driver has stretched out his lead to 40.4 seconds on new challenger for Toyota Tanak who jumped up to second place with victory on SS5 Vaumeilh – Claret 1.

Andreas Mikkelsen, who held second overall after SS2, is out of the running at Rallye Monte-Carlo after suffering an alternator issue with his Hyundai i20 WRC machine on SS4. Mikkelsen’s Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo briefly held second place before slipping to third at Friday’s first service park.

Esapekka Lappi has kept himself in contention for Toyota in fourth place just over a minute off of Ogier with team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala 12 seconds off him in fifth place.

Kris Meeke continues to lead the Citroen charge in sixth place while he holds a useful cushion on M-Sport Ford’s Bryan Bouffier.

After initial issues on the Thursday night stages both Elfyn Evans (M-Sport Ford) and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) have begun to climb the leaderboard into eighth and ninth respectively with Craig Breen completing the top ten after a tyre mix-up with his Citroen squad.