January 22, 2016 – Abu Dhabi Racing’s Kris Meeke has taken the lead of Rally Monte Carlo, the opening round of the 2016 World Rally Championship, yesterday evening after going quickest on the second of two special stages.
Meeke was outperformed in the first special by Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier, losing 4 seconds to the Frenchman, but he fought back in the second special to take the lead of the event; the Briton’s now 6.9 seconds ahead of Ogier.
Andreas Mikkelsen was best of the rest, ending the day in third place overall and is now 20 seconds off the lead, followed by Hyundai teammates Thierry Neuville and Hayden Paddon.
Volkswagen’s Jari-Matti Latvala had an incident with “a rock or a bridge” which caused him to slow down; he’s seventh overall, right behind M-Sport’s Mads Ostberg.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kris Meeke | Abu Dhabi Total WRT | Citroen | 25m32.1s |
| 2 | Sebastien Ogier | Volkswagen Motorsport | Volkswagen | 6.9s |
| 3 | Andreas Mikkelsen | Volkswagen Motorsport II | Volkswagen | 20.0s |
| 4 | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 31.4s |
| 5 | Hayden Paddon | Hyundai Motorsport N | Hyundai | 34.9s |
| 6 | Mads Ostberg | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 35.3s |
| 7 | Jari-Matti Latvala | Volkswagen Motorsport | Volkswagen | 38.7s |
| 8 | Robert Kubica | BRC Racing Team | Ford | 45.8s |
| 9 | Stephane Lefebvre | Abu Dhabi Total WRT | Citroen | 48.6s |
| 10 | Dani Sordo | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 51.8s |
