Ogier Leads Monte after Loeb Crashes
It was all change at the front after stage 8 of the 2015 Monte Carlo Rally as Sebastien Ogier moved into a clear lead after Sebastien Loeb lost six minutes when he damaged his Citroen's suspension. Loeb limped his Citroen to the stage finish in 10th overall, though he may yet have to retire from the day and take a 10-minute Rally2 penalty if he cannot fix the problem sufficiently to make it back to service. WRC rules require crews to have four fully-functioning wheels when driving on road sections.
The final stage was good for VW and bad for Citroen, with Loeb's team-mate Kris Meeke also damaging his suspension after he'd just moved up to fourth prior to his incident, which forced him to retire from the leg. Andreas Mikkelsen benefited from this and outpacing Ott Tanak to move into third overall and complete the VW formation, although Tanak's M-Sport Ford is just 10s behind him. Mads Ostberg is now the only front running Citroen in fifth place ahead of Elfyn Evans.
After winning two stages in the morning, it was a mixed afternoon for Robert Kubica, after being fourth quickest on SS6, fastest of all on SS7, then had two incidents on SS8, requiring help from spectators to get back on the road following the first, then driving on a puncture after sliding into a tree in the second which cost him four minutes, although having lost 10 minutes to electrical problems triggered by an impact on Thursday night, the extra delay made little difference to his rally.
Results after SS8:
1 Sebastien Ogier Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 1h52m07.4s
2 Jari-Matti Latvala Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 1m45.4s
3 Andreas Mikkelsen Volkswagen Motorsport II Volkswagen 2m34.8s
4 Ott Tanak M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 2m44.4s
5 Mads Ostberg Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 3m02.9s
6 Elfyn Evans M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m15.2s
7 Thierry Neuville Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 3m29.9s
8 Daniel Sordo Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 4m03.0s
9 Martin Prokop Jipocar Czech National Team Ford 4m59.6s
10 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 6m08.7s
23rd January, 2015