Happiness never comes alone. After the Italian-Monegasque Pastor-Gazzola team in RS3, it was a 100% Monegasque duo, consisting of Olivier Campana and Nicolas Milanesio, in a BMW i4 in the colors of the Yacht Club de Monaco, who best managed RS5 in the early afternoon, on the famous Colle Saint-Michel between Thorame Haute and Le Fugeret: only 40 penalty points, over a distance of 18.4 km, with a very narrow climb and a beautiful descent to Annot.
They weren’t the only ones to almost perfectly respect the average imposed by the organizers, as they finished 1st ex-aequo with Bulgarians Kalin Dedikov and Nikolay Kitanov (Kia EV6) and Frenchmen Christian Grimaldi and Jean-Baptiste Loty (Tesla S). Ahead of the other Tesla of Didier Malga and Anne-Valérie Bonnel (4th), in much better form than in the morning, and the Belgians Bernard Heine and Valérie Piette (5th), who had just won the SR4 in their VW ID7 Tourer.
Once again, Eneko Conde and Lukas Sergnese (Kia EV6 GT), the 2023 winners, were up to the task, taking a cautious 7th place to salvage their overall lead in this 8th edition, ahead of RS5 winners Campana and Milanesio. For the moment, the provisional podium is occupied by Belgian Bruno Thiry, European Rally Champion in 2003. He is starting to appreciate this form of modern and silent rallying, even if he finds it a bit slow, compared to the best part of his career.