WRC 2: Wiegand claims Monte-Carlo
Sepp Wiegand became the first winner of the FIA’s new WRC 2 category today, taking victory on Rallye Monte-Carlo by 8m25.8s from his nearest rival, Armin Kremer.
Wiegard was fastest on each of Saturday’s three stages, to wrap up a dominant four days of competition in his Skoda Fabia S2000. The German took the lead on the second stage when Esapekka Lappi retired his similar car with accident damage.
Despite treacherous road conditions on SS14 today, Wiegard set the seventh fastest time overall. He repeated the feat on SS16 – despite a spin at the top of the Col de Turini.
Subaru Impreza pilot Armin Kremer said he was relieved to be in the rally at all after the ‘crazy’ conditions of SS14. After SS16 he headed to service in Monaco with a 2m55.5s cushion over fellow Subaru driver Yuriy Protasov whose vision was hampered by a misting windscreen.
WRC 3: Champagne for Chardonnet
Sebastien Chardonnet, the sole remaining WRC 3 entrant, completed today’s trio of stages without incident to win the category and take a maximum points in a Citroen DS3 R3T.
Chardonnet was one of just two WRC 3 starters in Rallye Monte-Carlo and initially dueled with Renaud Poutot, in a similar car, until his rival went off the road and retired on Friday.