Belgian driver Thierry Neuville continues to set the pace in the opening round of the World Rally Championship, completing Day 2 of the Monte Carlo Rally with a tidy lead.

Neuville (Hyundai) went into the midday service after the morning’s loop of three long stages with a handy buffer after seeing off Sebastien Ogier (M-Sport Ford) and Kris Meeke (Citroen) who both made mistakes.

In the afternoon’s duplication of the morning stages, Ogier made a sustained push to strike back and win SS7 and 8 and is now 45.1s off Neuville’s overall lead in second.

Ott Tanak, after winning SS3, remains heavily in contention, just .3s off his team-mate Ogier’s time.

Neuville is aware that the fluctuating stage times could see his advantage nullified in a snap even though he won three successive stages.

On the final stage he twice stalled the i20’s engine after revealing his pace notes fell short on the penultimate stage of the day.

“We started the afternoon well but in SS7 we found our pace notes to be set up more for ice and snow, when the terrain was, in fact, more slushy,” Neuville said.

“We lost too much time there. Then, in the final stage, we were going well until an engine stall at a hairpin that cost us around ten seconds during the restart procedure.

“It was not the best end to the day but we have to be happy to lead this rally by such a margin.

“It’s never enough around Monte Carlo, though, and we know that Seb and Ott will push us tomorrow.”

Ogier’s recovery was masterful after he slid into a ditch in the morning which saw him then trail Neuville by more than a minute.

After being in a strong position, Citroen’s Meeke was another to go off course in the morning section, breaking the suspension and ending any hope of a decent result in the C3.

“Some corners were covered with a layer of sheet ice and it was difficult to judge the level of grip,” Meeke explained.

“I got caught out on a left-hand corner. The car drifted towards the outside and the right-hand side of the car hit a bank.

“With the front suspension arm broken, we couldn’t go any further.

“This is obviously not the sort of start we were hoping to make. Clearly, we can no longer aim for a good result, but we’ll keep going tomorrow to try and learn more about the C3 WRC.”

Toyota’s first WRC event back since 1999 sees Jari-Matti Latvala in fourth, just over two minutes from the lead in the Yaris which experienced engine problems early in the day.

A big impression was made WRC 2 with Andreas Mikkelsen leading his class and sits seventh outright in the Skoda Fabia R5.

Mikkelsen has built a huge lead over Elfyn Evans’ Ford Fiesta.

Monte: Overall Classification after Day Two (top 10)

1: Thierry Neuville Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 15:01.1
2: Sebastien Ogier Ford Fiesta WRC +45.1
3: Ott Tanak Ford Fiesta WRC +45.4
4: Jari-Matti Latvala Toyota Yaris WRC +2:09.7
5: Dani Sordo Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +2:57.8
6: Craig Breen Citroën DS3 WRC +3:04.1
7: Andreas Mikkelsenr Škoda Fabia R5 +5:50.8
8: Elfyn Evans Ford Fiesta WRC +8:12.1
9: Pontus Tidemand  Škoda Fabia R5 +8:22.4
10: Jan Kopecky Škoda Fabia R5 +8:38.2

VIDEO: Morning Stages

VIDEO: Afternoon Stages