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After an unscheduled break due to the cancellation of SS5 (a spectator was injured when he fell on the road), Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) set his first fastest time of 2025 at midday on SS5, between La Bréole and Selonnet (18.31km), while his two World Champion team-mates, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak, were at fault.
‘It was a really nice stage, I had a lot of fun and I was clean from start to finish without making any mistakes,’ enthused the 29-year-old Frenchman after his first best stage time for Hyundai, the Korean team he joined this winter after five seasons with M-Sport Ford. Fourmaux really showed what he was capable of, attacking very hard and negotiating the trickiest section of SS6 as best he could, where some drivers had to slow down a lot because they didn’t have the ideal tyres on their cars.
Fourmaux completed the stage in 11:00.8, so this was 7.9 seconds quicker than his compatriot Sébastien Ogier, who had a minor scare of no major consequence, and 10.4 seconds quicker than Elfyn Evans, the two Toyota drivers who set off on Friday morning in pursuit of Neuville. The chase was brought to a premature end at km 8.6 of SS6 when the Belgian was taken for a ride like a beginner, braking downhill on a completely dry right-hand bend.
‘I think it’s a consequence of our lack of experience with these new (Hankook) tyres. I was fooled and I got caught up in the braking’ summed up the reigning world champion, who lost nearly two minutes in the adventure, and therefore his place in the Top 3. He had driven half the stage with his left rear wheel askew, but firmly attached, and still had to go to the service park in Gap to repair it.
Another Hyundai driver, Tänak, had a very hot moment, driving several dozen metres at full speed in a ditch and turning his i20N into a convertible. ‘I’m missing a few parts on my car, but I’m doing fine,’ said the Estonian, the 2019 world champion, before heading back to Gap where the Hyundai Motorsport mechanics were about to experience a slightly agitated lunch break.
The real bargain of SS6 was Luxembourg’s Grégoire Munster (Ford Puma), who was already very comfortable in SS4 earlier in the morning. His daring choice of non-studded tyres (2 winter tyres and 2 super-soft), and his precaution in the icy section at the end, enabled him to set the 2nd fastest time of the stage and climb to 4th overall, behind Evans, Ogier and Fourmaux, grouped within 6 seconds. In other words, six drivers (and three makes) within 23 seconds of each other before the second loop of the day’s stages. As Ogier already put it, in three words: this is a ‘real Monte Carlo’!
