Greensmith and Edmondson storm to Monte debut win. January saw the 2019 World Rally Championship season kick off in the icy mountains above Monaco. The notoriously difficult event would be the first time Gus and Elliott have both properly competed on the legendary rally and expectations were realistic, though of course being the first event of the season, and the first rally together since the pair reunited, there was an underlying interest in how the crew would perform.
Emerging from Thursday nights opening stages, the crew held 4th in the RC2 class, but crucially led the way in the WRC Pro category, the Championship in which the crew will be fighting for top honours for this season. Friday was a long and demanding day, with changeable road conditions making correct tyre choice imperative along with the information from the Route Note Crew (Antoine L'Estage and Craig Parry). The pair drove smart and pushed in SS7 when the opportunity felt right, and finished the stage having taken over 36 seconds out of second placed Yoann Bonato, putting the Brits into the lead overall overnight with a 6.6 second lead going into Saturday.
Only 4 stages made up the second full day of competition, and fastest time on 3 of these for Greensmith and Edmondson consolidated their lead. The day ended with a long drive from Gap in the mountains, where the rally had been based until now, down to Monaco from where the final day of the rally would be based. The pair ended Saturday with 1min 31seconds in hand over the next RC2 car and over 14mins to the next WRC2 Pro crew.
The final day of Rallye Monte Carlo 2019 started early from the sea front in Monaco, and the crews headed north for the remaining 4 stages including 2 passes of the legendary Col de Turini stage. With a minute and half cushion the mission for the day was to get through problem free. The pair held it together maintaining a comfortable and safe pace, to end win the rally by still over 51 seconds, and a substantial win in the WRC Pro catagory putting them in the lead of the Championship after the first round.
The team now head to Sweden for round two of the WRC where they look to pick up where they left off, against an even stronger WRC Pro entry.