Rallye Monte Carlo - 2nd Day - 2nd Loop: Solberg in control as Ogier reels in Evans

At the end of Friday, Oliver Solberg remains the rally leader in Monte Carlo with Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier following him.

Oliver Solberg increased further his lead over his teammates as he was the fastest driver in Stage 7, but he lost some seconds in Stage 8 due to the darkness.

Elfyn Evans remains second overall, but he understeered and could not rotate his Yaris in Stage 8 resulting in having a contact with a bank. 

Sebastien Ogier does the 1-2-3 for Toyota Gazoo Racing and managed to keep Thierry Neuville behind by setting the fastest time in Stage 8 and 9. However, he is just 6,5 seconds behind Evans.

Adrien Fourmaux overtook Neuville and is now fourth, but he lost many seconds in Stage 8 as he faced a problem with the handbrake. Moreover, he received a 30-second time penalty as he arrived with a three-minute delay at the start of Stage 8.

Thierry Neuville was not able to respond to Ogier's pace on Friday afternoon, but he lost more than three minutes in Stage 9 as he was stuck in a ditch. He and Martijn Wydaeghe managed to keep going again thanks to the spectators, but they slipped behind Fourmaux and Alex Coria.

Jon Armstrong is still sixth overall and had a rear right puncture in Stage 7. Also, he had another front right puncture and had to stop to change the wheel, so he let Hayden Paddon pass him in Stage 8, but the Irishman was chasing Paddon on the stage as he was quicker than the Hyundai driver.

Paddon climbed to seventh position overall and stayed out of trouble on Friday afternoon.

Takamoto Katsuta dropped two places in Stage 8 as he had no power steering since Stage 7 where he had a puncture as well. In fact, Aaron Johnston used the handbrake in order to rotate their car in the hairpins.

Gregoire Munster and Sami Pajari are outside the top ten.

Munster was the fourth-fastest driver in Stage 9.

Josh McErlean was outside the top ten, but he was forced to retire after his going off into a ditch 1.6 Km into Stage 9.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after SS9:

Photo Credits: Toyota