Tanak sets up final day fight with Ogier at Rallye Monte-Carlo

Ott Tanak has taken six seconds out of Sebastien Ogier’s overall lead at the 2018 World Rally Championship season opener Rallye Monte-Carlo for a final day showdown.

The new Toyota driver has cut his former team-mate’s general classification lead to 33.5 seconds with Sunday’s final four stages to go to give himself a chance for victory and deny the defending WRC champion a fifth consecutive Rallye Monte-Carlo win.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville won the second run of the second stage Bayons – Breziers to provide some small redemption for his disastrous start to the event as the 2017 WRC runner-up climbed up to seventh place overall.

Ahead of Neuville, Latvala looks set for third place as he trails Toyota team-mate Tanak by almost one minute with Esapekka Lappi restoring the Japanese manufacturer’s provisional 2-3-4 having retaken fourth place from Citroen’s Kris Meeke after the Finn suffered an earlier puncture on SS11.

Meeke is just 1.6 seconds off Lappi but both might need to keep an eye on a late charge from M-Sport Ford’s Elfyn Evans who is currently sixth but 20 seconds back having narrowly missed out on victory on SS13 to Neuville.

Bryan Bouffier (M-Sport Ford) has slipped to eighth place after Neuville’s stage win with Citroen’s Craig Breen in ninth place having returned to form on Saturday’s final stage.

Jan Kopecky comfortably leads the WRC2 class by almost four minutes from fellow Skoda driver Kalle Rovanpera and also holds the final top ten spot.

Rallye Monte-Carlo resumes on Sunday with a four-stage finale which concludes with the Power stage SS17 La Cabanette – Col de Braus.