Tyre choice remains key in Monte battle

Day four of Rallye Monte-Carlo is due to get underway with the first of four stages shortly with tyre choice once again a hot topic of conversation in the packed service park on Monaco’s glamorous harbour front.

With the ground temperature on the famous Col de Turini on the first Moulinet-La Bollene Vesubie stage hovering at minus two degrees centigrade and the ground temperature on the following Lantosque-Luceram run reaching a maximum of 16 degrees centigrade, the tyres selected will have to cope with a wide range of temperatures.

Ford World Rally Team’s tyre technician George Black confirmed his leading driver Petter Solberg, currently third overall, would run on the hardest compound of Michelin tyre available.

“We expect reasonably warm and dry conditions,” said Black. “There are some damp patches but with the nature of the roads being quite abrasive and fast we expect we will be able to keep the tyre at a good temp and working well.”

The crews are currently making their way up to the start of stage 14, which goes live at 15:11hrs local time. Sebastien Loeb leads the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia in his Citroen DS3 WRC. He heads MINI’s Dani Sordo by 2m12.4s. Petter Solberg is 1m06.8s further back in his factory Fiesta