
WRC MonteCarlo: Ogier’s Third Win in a Row
The weekend has seen the first stage of the 2016 World Rally Championship season and, as usual, the first checkered flag of the year has been waved in the fantastic and evocative setting of the Principality of Monaco. Once again and for the third year in a row, on the most glamorous top step of the podium, the winning Team was the one of the Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, who thanks to his VW Polo WRC clinched the 33th victory of his career (the 26th at the wheel of a Volkswagen). The German Company has also monopolized the second step of the podium, thanks to the excellent Mikkelsen, while in third place we find an amazing Thierry Neuville on the Hyundai (the gap between the three drivers was even less than 4 minutes). But we can’t be deceived by appearances, because despite the “little” snow (compared to the previous seasons), the MonteCarlo Rally is one of the most difficult and demanding stage of them all, with a race distance of about 3 hours and 50 minutes, up and down narrow winding roads, as the most famous stage of the entire Championship: the Col de Turini (which runs from La-Bollene-Vésubie down to Sospel). It promises to be another season full of spectacle and extreme speed, with stiff competitors that will do their best to end the VW dominance. Also notable is the excellent performance of Ostberg and Lefebre, but it would be simplistic to exclude any of the drivers who have competed and finished the Rallye Monte-Carlo, this year just like any other.