Sébastien Ogier etched his name further into the history books by claiming a record-extending 10th victory at Rally Monte-Carlo, the opening round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, Ogier secured victory by a margin of 18.5 seconds over his Toyota GAZOO Racing team-mate Elfyn Evans after a nail-biting final day through the French Alps.
Sunday’s decisive final leg threatened to turn the tide. Ogier and his Toyota GAZOO Racing team-mate Elfyn Evans opted to carry four studded Hankook tires and only two super-soft slicks – an approach that proved effective on the icy roads of Avançon – Notre-Dame du Laus but left them vulnerable on the drier penultimate test at Digne-les-Bains / Chaudon-Norante. There, Adrien Fourmaux shone on a full-slick setup, outpacing both Toyotas by a 23.9 seconds and 17.8seconds respectively and momentarily threatening to disrupt the podium order.
Fourmaux, making his Hyundai WRC debut after an off-season switch from M-Sport Ford, had hoped for drier conditions on the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage to maximize his slick tyre advantage. Instead, the icy Col de Turini levelled the playing field, leaving him on the same mixed-tyre setup as Ogier and Evans.
Ogier capitalised with another stage win, while Evans held off Fourmaux’s late charge by just 7.5 seconds despite a heart-stopping brush with a rock face.
“What a weekend,” reflected Ogier, whose first triumph here came during Rallye Monte-Carlo’s IRC days in 2009.
“I don’t know where to start, what a weekend. I think I have had my lucky star with me this weekend – my uncle, who we lost one year ago. I am sure he was bringing me everything and this one is for him. I have no idea if it is my last [Rally Monte-Carlo] now. It would be a good place to stop.”
The drama extended far beyond the podium battle, as Sunday’s treacherous conditions wreaked havoc further down the field. Toyota’s Sami Pajari and Takamoto Katsuta both slid off the road on SS17, while Grégoire Munster’s M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 met a similar fate on the very next stage.
Behind Evans, Hyundai’s Ott Tänak ceded fourth position to Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä on the final day due to his own tyre misjudgement. The pair finished just 4.7 seconds apart, with both drivers now eager to bounce back on next month’s Rally Sweden as previous winners of the snow-and-ice fixture.
Defending champion Thierry Neuville salvaged sixth place after a tumultuous event. A combination of broken suspension from an early crash, a deflated tyre and an unexplained electrical issue cost him over five minutes, thwarting his hopes of defending last year’s win.
M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean impressed with a solid seventh-place finish on his Rally1 debut, while Rally2 competitors Yohan Rossel, Nikolay Gryazin and Gus Greensmith rounded out the top 10. Rossel’s standout performance earned him an early lead in the WRC2 championship.
