Hyundai Motorsport have struggled on debut in the 2014 Rallye Monte Carlo. On a truly European winter day Belgian young gun Thierry Neuville crashed out on the first stage and Danny Sordo suffered electrical problems on the fifth stage.
After exiting the rally after only half a stage Neuville said “It was a difficult start for us with our new team and our new car. On the first stage this morning, we were too fast into a tight right-hand corner, the car understeered and we hit a pole with
the rear. Unfortunately, we couldn’t continue and that was the end of Rallye Monte-Carlo for us,”
“We had the information from our weather crews that rain was coming and the stage would
have been wet but it was snowing and the conditions were really bad in there. I really want to move on from this and focus on Rally Sweden, where we want to come back strongly,” this is the forth time Neuville has competed in the Rallye Monte Carlo and on each occasion he has registered a DNF.
The action packed day started in near freezing early morning conditions, stages 1 to 3 produced roads covered with black ice, snow and rain. Teams which selected slicks and snow tyres domantied the early stages leaving teams on slicks only behind.
For stages 4 to 6 held on the same roads as stages 1 to 3 teams faced not only wet roads but very dirty and muddy rods.
After the first 6 stages we have only 10 WRC cars left in the race after 14 started the day.
Top 10 after day 1
1 Bryan Bouffier M-Sport Ford 1h25m36.6s
2 Kris Meeke Citroen +38.8
3 Robert Kubica M-Sport Ford +39.5
4 Sebastien Ogier Volkswagen +47.3
5 Mads Ostberg Citroen +1:20.7
6 Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford +1:38.6
7 Jari-Matti Latvala Volkswagen +2:20.8
8 Mikko Hirvonen M-Sport Ford +2:46.9
9 Andreas Mikkelsen Volkswagen +4:06.2
10 Olivier Burri Burri Ford (WRC 2) +4:47.4
