Rising French star, Stephane Lefebre, had a commanding 22,5 sec lead at the start of today’s stages in the WRC2 competition of the Rallye Monte Carlo after a dominant showing on Thursday’s opening brace of stages.
The reigning FIA Junior WRC champion, making his WRC debut in faster R5 machinery, was fastest on both tests to fend off the challenge from his 2014 JWRC sparring partner, Martin Koci, in a Ford Fiesta R5.
Quentin Giordano rounded out the top three in his DS 3 R5. He was 14.8s behind his Slovakian rival and 37.3s off Lefebvre’s ultimate pace.
Craig Breen had a difficult start after putting his Peugeot 208 off the road twice in the opening stage but a better second test left the Irishman in fourth.
Julien Maurin’s Ford Fiesta and Armin Kremer’s Skoda Fabia S2000 completed the top six.
The young South African, Henk Lategan, compweting in his first WRC rally and his firsty Monte Carlo Rally, finished the first two stages in 7th place overall, and after this morning’s loop of three stages he is still 7th overall.