Day one of Rallye Monte-Carlo has passed. Nikolay Gryazin leads after the day.
SS1, Col De Turni
Stage one would see Nikolay Gryazin take the stage win, beating Stephane Lefebvre by 7.9 seconds. Pepe Lopez would place third on the stage, 1.7 seconds behind Lefebvre. Yohan Rossel placed fourth on the stage, 0.1 seconds behind Lopez. Oliver Solberg would round out the top five, finishing the stage 0.1 seconds behind Rossel.
SS2, Col De Castillon
Stage two would once again be won by Nikolay Gryazin. Gryazin would beat Yohan Rossel by 8.6 seconds to win the stage. Stephane Lefebvre would place third on the stage, 0.2 seconds behind Rossel. Pepe Lopez would place fourth on the stage 9.4 seconds behind Lefebvre. Adrien Fourmaux would round out the top five, finishing the stage 3.6 seconds behind Lopez.
Puncture For Solberg
Oliver Solberg would suffer a puncture on SS2. This would inevitably cost Solberg two minutes of time, and likely his chance of winning the WRC2 category this weekend. Solberg spent the day trying to find pace in his new Skoda R5, as well as getting used to the reduced WRC2 aerodynamics. Solberg showed pace on SS1 as he placed fifth on the stage. Unfortunately for Solberg, this puncture may be too costly.
What To Expect From Day Two
Day two of Rallye Monte-Carlo will see drivers tackle six stages spanning 105 kilometres. Nikolay Gryazin will likely look to expand upon his 16.7-second lead on Stephane Lefebvre. Lefebvre will look to close the gap between him and Gryazin along with expanding his 1.6-second lead over Yohan Rossel. Chris Ingram will look to close the 5.3-second gap between him and Adrien Fourmaux and potentially move into the top five. Oliver Solberg will look to regain time after his puncture on SS2 and finish as high as possible while learning the limits of his Skoda.
My name is Joe Moore. I am a writer for Belly Up Hockey, Belly Up Racing, and Belly Up Sports. You can find me on Twitter.
