Press Releases - WRS3: Monte Carlo, Day 1 & 2

WRS3: Monte Carlo, Day 1 & 2

MRC's venture into sideways driving kicked off in the historic mountains of Monte Carlo, with the first of four stages on Day 1 at Bréziers leading off an accumulative 98km blast through the icey roads.

As many had expected, it was the series top ranked driver, 33 year old Martin Vaculik who took a commanding early lead, winning every stage, and navigating his Toyota Yaris to a +70 second lead at the close of the day, but many other stories were evolving further down the points table.

Somewhat against the grain, and springing a big surprise was another Toyota machine of 21 year old Brit; Wynn Hunter. The youngest driver in the Top 15 rankings came into the series as No.8 on the entry list, and made a bold statement early on, taking a brace of 2nd and 4th place stage results for P2 overall, tallying 18 points (as WRS scores daily) and with a modest +41 seconds in the pocket over Poland's Adam Mazur, who had moved over from competing in TCS World, and regularly bested the Brit in single rally exhibitions over the previous season.

Other stand-out performances include an 8th place finish on the day for Gabriel De Souza, the 20 year old Brazilian running as high as P5 in the morning stage, securing himself 4pts, and Michael Daněk narrowly missing out on a points finish in P11. The rookie 18 year old having only competed for just over half a season in any discipline!

Day 2 saw a treacherous maelstrom of conditions affect the first two stages of running, as torrential rain battered both Chaillol and the shorter La Bâtie-Neuve respectively, ensuring that - when coupled with two perfectly dry stages later that day - all runners were facing a choice as to which tyres to declare before Day 2 began, whether the dry weather of stages 3 and 4 would kill the wet tyres strapped on for 1 and 2, or if the gamble for an intermediate or slick would hold up well enough on storm-soaked asphalt. A conservative gamble that didn't quite pay off on Day 1 for Rory Zarsoff, and Marcial de Penouta, who had to wait until the final, semi-wet stage before dialing in the intermediate and registering 3rd, and 2nd fastest times, albeit after losing over three minutes in the earlier three dry stages.

As predicted, the mixed conditions of Day 2 saw some polarised results, and two brand new stage winners! Rally leading pair Vaculik and Hunter opted for full wet tyres to temper the longer wet stages, taking P1 and P2 yet again, but fell away dramatically and out of the Top 10 in the afternoon as conditions improved and the sun shone. Cometh new names atop the stage standings, as afformentioned Mazur, and high-ranking João Manuel Bão Pereira made good of slick rubber and shared a win apiece, the Mini Cooper pair hauling back an huge chunk of the time lost in the rain, but still registering an overall deficit at the midway stage.

Rally Monte Carlo, as it stands after Day 2/4

1. M. Vaculik
2. W. Hunter (+2:16.632)
3. A. Mazur (+3:43.486)
4. J. Bão Pereira (+3:45.962)
5. H. Castroneves (+4:46.394)

Once again, huge performances from De Souza, this time in the wet, P5 and P3 in the morning stages sees them jump to 7th overall, similarly too a big day for Visvaldis Ceļš, the 18 year old made good use of wet rubber to jump from P13 to P9 and into the points!

However, Monte Carlo has not been kind to everybody, with five of the 28 runners coming to grief and retiring from the event across the eight stages.

Day 3 and 4 will see another 90km of racing, with Vaculik looking to retain his dominant position at the top of the time sheet, and seal a first ever Rally victory!