With the top three all within 22.2 seconds of each other ahead of the grand finale at around midday on the Col de Turini, the 93rd Monte-Carlo Rally was going to be a battle to the finish. It’s hard to say whether Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) will be able to hold off Elfyn Evans (Toyota) and Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) to claim an historic 10th victory in the Principality. It was the fault of the Korean marque’s new French driver, who started with a daring choice of tyres that paid big dividends on SS17, between Digne-les-Bains and Chaudon Norante (19.01km).

‘It was a bit of a gamble and it worked out’, said Fourmaux, who set off from Gap this morning with 4 Hankook super-tendres and two studded tyres on his car and in his boot, like Kalle Rovanperä, the two-time Finnish world champion. It wasn’t the best choice in SS16 at the start of the morning, where the two drivers limited the damage. But it was the one that almost hit the jackpot on SS17, when Fourmaux set the fastest time, his second of the rally, 4.5 seconds ahead of Rovanperä. And the gaps were substantial at a crucial moment.

Over and above the raw result, it was the gaps over less than 20km that once again turned the general classification upside down. Fourmaux took back 23.9 seconds from Ogier, who left Gap with 2 super-soft tyres and 4 studded (just like Evans), and remains in the lead of the rally. He also inflicted a 17.8-second sanction to Evans, who remains second, but only just. The Welshman now has a lead of just four seconds over the Frenchman, who is back in 3rd place.

This performance was also achieved at the expense of his world champion team-mate, Ott Tänak, with whom he will be battling for a podium finish in the Principality, or better, if one of the leading Toyotas fails, in the last stage.

Behind Ogier, two Toyota-Hyundai duels

Behind the leading trio, and for the same reasons (different tyre choices), Tänak also lost a lot of ground on SS17: 27.8 seconds down on Fourmaux, and so 3rd place is gone, not to mention the fact that Rovanperä can now hope to steal 4th place from him, depending on what happens in the judge of peace, Col de Turini, at the stroke of midday.

These 17.92km between Bollène-Vésubie and Peïra-Cava, as is often the case in the Monte-Carlo, will be decisive on several levels of the overall classification. The top of the stage and the famous pass were still covered in snow this morning, but the snow was likely to melt throughout the morning… except in the very shady parts of the climb.

So we’ll have to wait until 1 pm, approximately, to find out who was right, very early this morning, after the gravel crews had passed, making predictions. And whether Ogier will be able to win his 10th Rallye Monte-Carlo, including 9 in the WRC. ‘This rally has been very complicated since the start, so we’ll see…’ smiled the eight-time world champion before setting off again for the Alpes-Maritimes. He knew that anything was possible in the final kilometres, as was often the case in the legend of Rallye Monte Carlo…

SS17 results