83. Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo 2015
21. 1. – 25. 1. 2015, Gap - Monaco • asphalt - snow 355.48 km - (cancelled 19.93 km) • total distance including road sections - 1383.15 km • Other years
Info
SS15
"A great rally for us, hopefully Jari-Matti and Ogier will get here too and make this a 1-2-3."
Again very lucky, same engine problem again, so we had to stop. I'll be in the new car for Sweden so hopefully it wont happen again. I'm pleased to be here without any mistakes from my side.
"He was a little faster, so good for him. The rally was difficult, we lost a bit of time near the end."
It feels great. I enjoyed the conditions today - and the battle with Dani. This rally is really difficult but it's an honour to drive it.
I'm happy to reach the finish, but there's a bit of a feeling of what could have been. In some places there has been a massive step forward from last year but other other times I've not made great choices.
A decent result, but the last two days have been dreadful. We can't go on like this. I pushed hard in this stage and the time was awful.
"It was great. Okay, disappointed because of the mistake, but I had some pleasure. I enjoyed the rally, a great atmosphere and great to be here."
It's a little drier, still tricky, I had a good stage. We showed good times against Seb, but I want to get results this year.
"One small off in the stage, but a good day. See you in Sweden!"
"We have just fourth, fifth and sixth gear - very difficult in the hairpins!"
I'm really sorry that we had one mistake earlier in the event, but otherwise I think it's been a really positive start to my season with M-Sport.
"It was okay, we made some good times"
I'm happy to get to the finish. I have a new co-driver, a new team. Looking for more improvement on rallies I know better this year.
Gearbox problems
SS14
Camili has hit a rock with the rear, wheel is bent.
Lost wheel
"Koci has hit a tree after a patch of black ice. Okay stage for us, caught 2 guys, we took slowly."
"Not good. The brakes on this car are not working well. The pads are so glazed, they have no bite. With one stage to go I hope they will be okay."
His car has lost both right-hand wheels. He's going no further today / Obě kola na pravé straně uražena
"Really, really slow, I want to save my tyres for the Power Stage."
Hit a wall
Lost brake pedal and crashed
Probably crashed after finish line
still without 3rd gear
"Some tricky icy places. I had to stop and reverse at one point."
"It was difficult with my tyres because we had too much pressure in them in the opening stage and destroyed them. Not so good."
"Tricky, some damp and some ice. My super soft tyres are almost finished at the end but we are okay. I think everybody is in the same situation more or less."
SS13
"Quite happy with the time, we have to fight for second place."
Not easy with the car, (it's a Super 2000 Skoda, not an R5 spec) There were too many narrow corners but I think it's okay.
I don't push. No mistakes. I only want to finish now. I am 2 minutes ahead of Kremer so I am looking only for the finish.
"We went for a safe tyre choice. Okay, not the optimum for the stage but the most important thing is to try and win this rally."
No point to take many risks where I am. I try to learn it for the Power Stage. That's all I can do.
"No problems. Just trying to get safely through. Third place here would be very good."
"Conditions are tricky in some places, there is ice on the road from the outside and snow from the cuts. I think Turini will be very difficult."
"My tyres were overheating a little before the finish but otherwise okay - a good stage."
"The car is working great. Difficult to know what tyres to take, it seemed like the tarmac had a lot of grip."
Yeah, he's pushing hard. That was okay. Let's see how the Col de Turini looks. I expect it will be much worse.
There's a lot of corner cutting and that has dragged lots of snow in the road that we did not expect.
"The engineers have found a great setting now"
"We have some problem with the gearbox. No third gear, and without 3rd the hairpins are not easy."
A big moment early on, there was a very late call on the pace-note. I had a bit of work to do to straighten it out. It's fine.
"Quite slippy at the beginning but it was okay, The finish line is not great - the braking after is short."
Pulled straight at the end of the stage
SS12
The drive-shaft is broken, all the oil drained out and we have only rear-wheel drive. Such a disaster. I came here to fight for points. but I'm happy we can continue and tomorrow we fight.
"There is so much to learn. This is my third Monte and my most difficult."
"I went straight off - my fault. I have never driven a stage with tyres like this."
"We should have taken a stud here. The car was under-steering a lot."
The left rear corner is held together by ratchet straps. "Extremely slow, we lost a load of time. I've got a lot more work to do to get the car back to Monaco, but I reckon we'll do it." Levé zadní kolo je zafixováno pásy. "Jel jsem pomalu a ztratil hodně času. Ještě to bude práce dotáhnout do Monaca."
I'm not confident at all, but happy that we have got to the end of the day.
"A really nice stage, the car has really nice balance"
We have a big engine problem. We drove a few kilometres with three cylinders, and we had to stop completely to reset it. I don't know exactly what it is.
"Hats off to my weather crew. A great job."
I don't understand, I have no intention to catch him, but I really enjoyed this stage, I have a great rhythm.
"It's a beautiful stage, but in these conditions my studded tyres were the safe option." Did you have a moment? "No. That’s wrong". / "Krásná zkouška, ale v těchto podmínkách byly pneu s hřeby bezpečnou volbou." Měl jste krizovku? "Ne, neměl."
"We tried to use the slicks to see how it was. I had to be very careful in the middle bit. Not my best stage."
"We tried the crossover combination of 2 studded and 2 super softs. I had a spin and lost 10 or 12 seconds - I could have been faster!"
"Very difficult because we have handbrake failure. So with slicks, on ice and no handbrake - not easy. I had the throw the car sideways into hairpins. Much more ice than I expected."
"It was the same as every year. All dry except for four or five kilometres of ice and snow."
SS11
Finally! I have to take my hat off to my engineer, he's made a big, big, big improvement. After our test I thought I knew how to set the car up - but now we are on the correct set-up. My rally starts here!
"I think we have a puncture. We must check. We had the same super-soft tyres as Lefebvre."
"The first dry stage. A good run, the time should be okay."
"We have a soft and snow tyre cross. Okay, probably not the best here but it should be better on the next one."
I'm giving myself some time to get the confidence back. The car is fine. In 30 minutes the mechanics made it like new.
"Not easy, in a few places the super-softs were overheating a little, but they should be a better option for the stage to come."
"It was okay. Trying to be fast and clever at the same time."
"Good stage! Really fast places and some bumps so it’s good to drive in fully dry conditions. Car is good! We have soft tyres"
"Yeah, a good stage, no problems for us. Soft tyres."
"Nothing special in this stage."
"This stage was very bumpy and difficult."
SS10
"Caught out on a gravel section"
"Its a bit like dancing on Ice"
Stopped in stage
Stopped in stage
"One of the hardest stages I have ever done, the fight continues"
I am pushing on the dry, the stage wasn't to bad, I will see what the gap is to Martin before the next stage
"I never used to like this stage before, very difficult"
Is on the move
"It was on a ice section I was driving carefully, I tried to push in places but when I braked we hit a wall on a slow corner, we are lucky to get to the finish"
"Just a steady run through. I want to get to the finish"
It wasn't possible to enjoy, I lost confidence early in the stage, I am happy to finish the stage
"It is very difficult conditions and I had a spin and bounced back onto the road"
"It felt like we went quite hard on the clean bits, a few close calls but that is the nature of the stage"
Off Road
Very very tricky, we are on slick tyres and there is a big part of the stage in Ice, some parts I want to open the door and push with my legs it doesn't move very well
Is on the move
"No issues, we took it careful and it was a clean stage for us"
"Not sure if Ogier had a problem, I spun at the beginning of the stage, difficult stage, maybe a bit too safe"
Stopped in stage
"Everything OK, we were very safe on tyre choice, I have nothing to play for, it was risky for me"
"A lot more ice than I was expecting, we were on the harder slick so on the ice we struggled, we took no chances on the ice but good on the dry tarmac"
"I was only driving, The position is very very tricky our gravel crew did a very good job, it was a very difficult stage but I drive well"
Crashed into a wall
Stopped in stage
SS8
It happened when I hit a little bit a wall in an icy place. Not too hard, but something - I don't know exactly what - is wrong. It can happen, but in this road position, I had to tried something different with my tyres. I tried really hard and did a mistake. Now I will try to get back to service.
"Very difficult to know if our studded tyres were the best for the afternoon. The road was clear a lot of the time and we were sliding about on the studs."
"A bit of a frustrating afternoon with the tyre choices we made. Apart from a spin on Stage 6 it has been okay."
I'm probably the driver with the least experience here. I've learned a lot.
"A lot of sideways driving - it was quite fun."
"We had a massive moment at high speed. We went off, and thanks to the spectators we got back, then later at a junction we went off again, slid on the snow, hit a tree and punctured the tyre. We drove 10km like that."
SS7
"I thought I had a good stage but I lost about 5sec in a hairpin. It was slippery I pushed really hard. My tyre choice was not bad."
"I went straight on at a junction and had to reverse."
Very dirty, but we were on a different tyre choice. I didn't do much testing with the crossover, but I'm happy with how it performed.
"I was expecting conditions to be better in there. There was snow near the start and lots of slippery mud near the end. "I have snow tyres all round. I'm not sure if it was the best choice but I felt okay." / "Čekal jsem lepší podmínky. Na začátku byl sníh a ke konci hodně bláta. Měl jsem 4 zimní gumy, nejsem si jist, zda to byla dobrá volba, ale cítil jsem se dobře."
"Very slippery and I do not have good tyre choice."
"Lots of mud and snow about but it was more complicated on the first loop."
Very slippery and dirty, and lots of mud about, but it's the first stage I've enjoyed driving today.
SS6
"I told him [Ogier] before the stage that I thought it was better to take the studded tyres here. That I had the wrong ones. I was a little surprised by the amount of snow and ice in there. But in the end it was okay for us. A decent time."
"I was surprised by the amount of snow and ice in there."
It's got colder since the safety note crews went through. There is ice where they said it was clear. You have to drive it as you see it.
"You really need four studded tyres in here."
With no studs in there it's scary
I don't speak to the radio anymore.
"It's slippery in there and also a lot of fog out there so we took it steady." / "Klouže to a je tam mlha, jeli jsme opatrně." měl křížem zimní a pneu s hřeby
"We pushed quite a lot at the end, but on four snow tyres without studs it was difficult - especially at the start. On the next stage it should be a little drier."
SS5
"We tried to make some cuts and put some snow on the road for the cars behind, we try to make an advantage."
"Sometime you have to fight. Very, very muddy and I have to take big, big risks to drive like this."
It's tricky to adjust to the surface changes, but I'm happy with the clean run so far.
We touched a bank in a slippery section near the start. That's what happens when you lose your studs.
"Good notes from our safety crew, even though spectators are throwing more snow on here and there."
The road conditions are definitely getting worse, especially near the end. Sometimes the spectators are throwing snow on the road, sometimes it's the cars in front. Our gravel notes are often wrong as a result.
"You have to be happy for every stage you get through here! Try to go straight and you end up going sideways."
It was messy in some places. The snow is in the road. I had a smooth run, but I couldn't do much better than that. It's okay. I have a strategy.
We lost all the studs in the asphalt on the second stage, so wherever there is ice it's very tough. Not easy to survive.
SS4
front left puncture
"I started to push hard again. I did a little mistake."
"Not bad, I thought my time would be better but all in all was good."
"The cars in front are cutting a lot, so there is a lots of mud on the road."
"Difficult - I hardly recognize the road after the recce, the notes from the gravel crew are hard to use."
"Quite okay but the speed is not good enough. Maybe not perfect on the tyres - I tried to save them because there was lots of asphalt - I have no more studs."
"Not a good stage - the rhythm was terrible, but okay, we tried to save some studs for the next stage."
"I feel more comfortable now. Certainly a lot better than the first one."
It was difficult because I didn't manage to keep the studs.
"Yeah, okay. That was icy and tricky"
SS3
A lot of fog, so you have to trust your notes 100 per cent - and on a new stage that's tricky.
Really. really crazy conditions. I'm keeping my own rhythm so all good for us.
"Okay - no problems for us. The fog at the beginning knocked my confidence at bit. Happy to get through."
It was okay. It didn't feel too wild - I just tried to be neat and tidy. The right tyre choice too, I think.
"Quite difficult to find my rhythm with such a fog!"
"What a stage! I thought today would be easier than last night - but no. There was more ice than I expected and in the fog there was no visibility at all - not ideal when you are trying to see where the grip is."
I took it very steady. Very demanding conditions and it's a long rally. Lots of black ice and fog here. No reason to take any kind of risk. There are good stages to come.
All okay but very slippery. We didn't have full studs because our gravel crew said there was only 4km ice. It was more like 10km. And fog too. We took it cautiously.
Very difficult. I didn't take any risks. Very slippery at beginning and some thick fog too. After yesterday I decided to build experience and confidence.
SS2
"We spun, and when we were in reverse we lost the lights and the alternator I think. First I lost all lights then the car was switching on and off. We managed to reset it and get going - which is the main thing - but we lost a lot of time."
It was okay but a lot of gravel everywhere in every corner. I had a good tyre choice for the first stage but it wasn't the best for the second. I passed two cars in there - I'm not sure who they were.
Has been off the road
Okay for us. Quite clear, no problems. It was my aim to be here ready for day two, so I'm happy with that
The stage is very dangerous, so I had to keep a safe pace. Still, it feels good to be here, it's the first time I have reached the end of the opening day of the Monte!
"Difficult to find a rhythm. Not a good stage."
It was okay. I'm playing it very carefully. Lots of black ice so I'm taking no risks. I have fitted two snow tyres and two with studs. I think it was the right choice.
"Not a good stage. We have a problem with the boot - it was opening and that was distracting."
I'm very happy to be here because the stage was difficult. I was surprised by my time on the first one. First on the road is very difficult and I have done a wrong tyre choice for this one. Studs were the correct choice for the first stage - but not this one.
SS1
After four or five corners I found some snow and hit a big stone on the right rear. It was difficult to get the car through the stage. I don't know if we can continue tonight.
"We had a big moment a couple of kilometers before the finish."
So much ice around. It didn't feel like we were going fast at all. Three kilometres before the end I told [my co-driver] Daniel 'That's it, I've stopped - completely stopped' That's really how it felt. And then we saw the time!
"One moment, we went straight on in a braking zone. We have a lot of understeer"
So difficult, but we didn't have any moments - and we saw that many people did. I feel so good to be back in a factory team. I'm doing my best and trying to be as relaxed as possible.
I didn't expect it would be this slippery. I had two moments and I'm happy to be here. For a first stage it was very difficult!
"I lost time in the first split. I braked too late, went off and stalled the engine. My co-driver Marc had to get out to help push us out of the ditch."
When you try to go fast it's impossible
Conditions are really tricky, but I'm happy!
"I struggled a lot but I tried to be very smooth with this difficult conditions."
"We have no word to describe this stage. I tried to avoid mistakes."
"Very tricky stage. I did go with no risk. Not easy at all. It will be better and better for each driver."
"It’s only 12s gap but this conditions are so demanding that u can loose minutes if you make a mistake"
"Almost full ice everywhere, little grip. I tried to drive very carefully. Not an easy one to start the rally"