SS5: Champion Hänninen extends lead
But Solberg’s on a charge
Juho Hänninen has continued his impressive start to Rallye Monte-Carlo by going fastest on Thursday’s opening stage, the 23.05-kilometre St Jean en Royans-Font D’Urle test.
The Škoda Fabia driver, the reigning Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion, was 0.2s faster than former world rally title winner Petter Solberg to extend his overall advantage over Freddy Loix to 51.8s after Loix could only manage the seventh-fastest time on the stage.
Solberg is now 3.7s behind Loix heading into stage six despite losing a few seconds with a sticking throttle.
Jan Kopecký has moved ahead of Peugeot UK’s Guy Wilks into fifth after Wilks dropped time with a big slide close to the start of the stage. Wilks also said his car’s damper settings were too stiff.