January 22, 2016 – Volkswagen’s triple world champion Sebastien Ogier has taken the lead of Rally Monte Carlo after a gripping battle with Abu Dhabi Racing’s Kris Meeke on the second day of action.
Ogier was second overall, 11 seconds behind Meeke, at the end of Day 1 but the Frenchman took the lead after going quickest in SS3, SS5 and SS6 today, before falling back to second place as Meeke hit back in SS7 to reclaim the lead. However, Ogier took another stage win in SS8 and moved back into P1, while Meeke, who also claimed the fastest time in SS4, dropped to P2, 9.5 seconds behind Ogier.
Ogier’s teammates Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen had a difficult day as both struggled for pace; they enter the third day in third and fourth places respectively, followed by Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
Robert Kubica (Ford) and Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) crashed out of the rally, while Elfyn Evans (Ford) leads in WRC2 despite having a close encounter with Kubica’s car.
El Ford fiesta de Kubica ya accidentado, es golpeado por Evans a su paso por el tramo #WRC #RallyeMonteCarlo pic.twitter.com/3ij6mPZ3CL
— inforallymotor (@inforallymotor) January 22, 2016
Overall standings after SS8:
| POS | # | DRIVER | TIME | DIFF PREV | DIFF 1ST |
| 1. | 1 | S. OGIER | 1:29:06.1 | ||
| 2. | 7 | K. MEEKE | 1:29:15.6 | +9.5 | +9.5 |
| 3. | 2 | J. LATVALA | 1:30:14.2 | +58.6 | +1:08.1 |
| 4. | 9 | A. MIKKELSEN | 1:30:39.9 | +25.7 | +1:33.8 |
| 5. | 3 | T. NEUVILLE | 1:30:53.9 | +14.0 | +1:47.8 |
| 6. | 5 | M. OSTBERG | 1:31:24.6 | +30.7 | +2:18.5 |
| 7. | 4 | D. SORDO | 1:32:13.9 | +49.3 | +3:07.8 |
| 8. | 8 | S. LEFEBVRE | 1:32:38.1 | +24.2 | +3:32.0 |
| 9. | 17 | B. BOUFFIER | 1:33:24.7 | +46.6 | +4:18.6 |
| 10. | 12 | O. TANAK | 1:34:31.9 | +1:07.2 | +5:25.8 |
