Sébastien Ogier, who was leading the 90th Rallye Monte-Carlo with a 24-second gap over Sébastien Loeb, and only two stages to go, arrived on the rim of his front left wheel at the end of SS16, the penultimate of this rally, the second run between La Penne and Collongues. Because of this puncture, the Toyota driver lost 34.1 seconds and his place of leader, recovered right away by the Alsatian in a Ford Puma, who came out of his WRC retirement (last rally: Turkey in September 2020) to celebrate this 90th edition in style.

There are only 14 km left to cover, in the SS17, with two passes on the menu, Col du Buis and Col de Félines, before a majestic but tricky descent, and several hairpins in the process of heating up, thanks to the glorious sun of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, towards the medieval town of Entrevaux. A final twist could not be ruled out, however, in this already extraordinary rally, but with a gap of 9.5 seconds ahead of Ogier-Veillas tandem, the brand new Loeb-Galmiche crew, for their first ever joint-venture in a Ford Puma Hybrid, is not far from a masterstroke…