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The Toyotas took the initiative in the first stage of the Saturday morning loop. Elfyn Evans set the best time in La Colle-Saint-Michel (16.8 km), his first in this rally, enough to take a handful of seconds from Sébastien Loeb (Ford Puma), still in the lead for a handful of seconds (6.5 ahead of Ogier), but who will have to resist the Toyotas throughout the day.
“It wasn’t a perfect stage for me. I think my two super-soft tyres didn’t help me,” the leader of the 90th Monte-Carlo Rally said, at the end of the stage. A few minutes earlier, in the privacy of the cockpit, he had summed up the situation perfectly: “I couldn’t find the rhythm. Neither did you, by the way…”, he calmly slipped to his new team-mate, Isabelle Galmiche. Promising for the future, because a frustrated Loeb generally goes faster in the next stage.
By taking 7.3 seconds from Loeb in this SS9 between Le Fugeret and Thorame-Haute, east of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the Welshman got back into the fight for the win, less than 15 seconds behind Loeb, as he also took 3.9 seconds from his teammate Sébastien Ogier: “I’m not happy with the car, my hybrid doesn’t help me”, confided Ogier, a little disappointed with his 3rd time, behind Evans and surprising youngster Kalle Rovanperä (2nd). Three Toyotas in the first three spots, in order to put maximum pressure on Loeb, 7th in this SS9.
Seven, like the number of victories in Monaco for the Alsatian whose first participation dates back to 2001, at the wheel of a Citroën Saxo. And who this weekend, aboard his Ford Puma, became the oldest driver to ever lead a world championship rally, beating the record held for three decades by Swede Bjorn Waldegard, winner of the Safari Rally in 1990, at age 46, in a Toyota Celica.
In what needs to be called the second group, the fight will pit two Hyundai drivers against two Ford drivers on Saturday. On one side, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak, victim of a slow puncture in SS9, who started with only one spare wheel this morning, in order to be lighter. On the other side, Craig Breen and Gus Greensmith who gave Friday, after the first best time of his WRC career, a plausible explanation for the interest aroused by this 90th edition, the first of the hybrid WRC era: “It’s hard to put into words how amazing this Ford Puma is!”. Ford and M-Sport have worked well in the past few months, in Banbury, and it shows.
Two Frenchmen, two multiple world champions, two exceptional drivers, the two Sébastiens who wrote the recent legend of WRC (17 world crowns between them since 2004) are sharing the lead of the 90th Monte-Carlo Rally, Saturday morning at the end of SS10, a 17 km long asphalt ribbon between Saint-Jeannet and Malijai. And Toyota again monopolized the three best times in this stage as fast as bumpy, but in a different order from SS9: Ogier ahead of Evans and the young Rovanperä, while Loeb had to settle for 4th time, losing 6.5 seconds on Ogier.
Provisional assessment: Ogier and Loeb are all square after the first ten stages, Evans 3rd at 9.3 seconds, and all the others far behind. To spice it all up, SS11 (Saint-Geniez-Thoard, 20 km) promised to be thrilling, with many very slippery portions, snowy or icy, on the northern portions of famous Col de Fontbelle (1304 m).
The two Sebs, who set off this morning with super-soft tyres, were not completely satisfied with the behaviour of their respective cars, the Toyota Yaris and the Ford Puma, with the added bonus of difficulties, at times, in managing the new hybrid mode and its additional 100 hp. They are bearing the brunt of a new era of the WRC, but they do so with all the experience accumulated over more than ten years, twenty years even for Loeb, who was already competing in Monte-Carlo in 2001.
In the chasing group, relegated at more than one minute in the general classification, the best placed to hope for a possible podium, in the event of a hitch for the leading trio, is now Irishman Craig Breen, 4th in his Puma entered by Malcolm Wilson’s M -Sport team. He really liked this SS10 because he thought it looked a lot like the roads of his native Ireland, with “lots of bumps”. As for Thierry Neuville (5th), he encountered a problem with his Hyundai and said he was a little worried: “Something broke, I don’t know what…” revealed the Belgian, a 5-time vice-world champion between 2013 and 2019.
The duel between the two Sébastiens turned to the advantage of Ogier, who posted the best time in SS11 at noon, between Saint-Geniez and Thoard, while his teammate at Toyota, Elfyn Evans, made a mistake at the end of the special, on a dry road, on the sunny portion going downhill, after having perfectly negotiated the most tricky and very snowy part of this 20km-long stage. Stuck on the roadside, in reverse, after hitting the embankment on the right, the Welshman saw his hopes of a podium vanish. He was well ahead of his rivals, Ogier and Loeb included, at the top of Col de Fontbelle, after 14 km in this tricky stage.
Ogier got scared and almost took a big jump on the north side of the pass, coming out very wide from a right turn, while Loeb was more careful and conceded 5.4 seconds to his rival. Their closest pursuer in the general classification is now Craig Breen (Ford Puma), more than a minute away. Because of the off by Evans, the stage was then stopped, after Loeb and before Greensmith, to allow the Toyota of the vice-world champion, to be pushed back on the road.
“It’s never easy, with a mixed choice of tyres: two studded tires and two slicks,” said both Loeb and Ogier at the end, relieved to have come out of this complicated stage unscathed, before going to the tyre fitting zone set in Digne-les-Bains and starting to consider how best to manage the next loop: two second runs in Saint-Jeannet-Malijai (SS12) and Saint-Geniez-Thoard (SS13).
The first one completely dry and very bumpy, from start to finish. The second half snowy, even icy and very tricky, without lots of safety rails, and the other half ultra-dry, downhill and in full sun, to the small village of Thoard.
The first stage of the afternoon, SS12 between Saint-Jeannet and Malijai, allowed young Finn Kalle Rovanperä to register his name, for the first time in his career, in the list of stage winners at Monte-Carlo Rally, just like Gus Greensmith on Friday. Kalle is Harri’s son, the winner of a single WRC rally (Sweden in 2001), just a few months after Kalle’s birth, in October 2000. Barely slower than the Toyota driver, Sébastien Loeb (2nd, at 2 tenths) managed to regain four tenths of a second from Sébastien Ogier (3rd), who retained the lead before the 13th special, the last of the day.
The second run through col de Fontbelle (SS13, 20 km) is promising and we shall know, around 4, which driver, between Ogier or Loeb, has made the best choice of tires: the youngest Seb, born 38 years ago in the Hautes-Alpes, will have a more daring mixed fit (soft tyres/snow tyres) than the slightly more cautious mixed fit (soft tyres/studded tyres) chosen by the oldest Seb, born 47 years ago near Haguenau, in Alsace…
A gap of over 20 seconds between Ogier and Loeb: the last special stage of this Saturday (SS13, 20 km), the second pass between Saint-Geniez and Thoard, was decided just before the start: “We put on the slicks at the last minute, but Ogier saw it…”, smiled Loeb at the end. “I was going to use my snow tyres, because it was the safest option, but when we saw that Seb was putting on the slick tires, we changed our mind at the last minute and put on the slick tyres as well”, Ogier explained later. And he was right, since he managed to extend his lead over Loeb from 5 to 21.1 seconds in the space of 20kms.
Fans will never know if, by putting on his two studded Pirelli tyres in this SS13, instead of keeping them in the trunk, Loeb could have rocked this rally again, just like Friday morning when he took the lead, at the expense of Ogier, by signing four best times in a row. And now, with four stages to go, “21 seconds is a bit far away”, Loeb admitted before heading back to Monaco for a good night’s rest, after a suspenseful day which did not end as he hoped.
What is certain is that Ogier, on four soft tyres, lost less time -5 seconds- on Rovanperä, who started with two snow tyres, than Loeb -21.1 seconds- on four soft tyres too. Another sure thing is that Rovanperä took advantage of the situation to post his second best time in a row, after SS12, and completed a grand slam by Toyota on Saturday (with 2 stage wins for Ogier and one for Evans). So the Finnish hopeful will start the last morning of the rally, early on Sunday (67kms over four stages), in 4th place, with a chance of a podium because he is only 37 seconds behind Craig Breen, 3rd in his Ford Puma Hybrid.
Further down the standings, Gus Greensmith (Ford Puma), now 5th but 6 minutes 33 seconds back, lost all chances of a podium by showing up 18 minutes late before the start of SS11, after having a puncture and suffering a major mechanical problem in SS10, already losing a bit less than two minutes on the leading quartet in that stage, and then spending a long time trying to repair on the side of the road. Worse still, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), now 6th and 7 minutes 44 seconds behind Ogier, saw his front right damper pierce through his bonnet and he finished the day in slow motion, to save big points on Sunday in the championship, and possibly to aim for bonus points in the Power Stage.
In WRC2, big favourite is now Norway’sAndreas Mikkelsen, who is now 7th overall without competition from former class leader Frenchman Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën C3), who disappeared in the morning: sanctioned by a 30-minute time penalty, he then hit the bank at the end of SS10, spinning and losing his right rear wheel. Game over.
Sébastien Loeb (Ford), very fit and wide awake, early in the morning, posted the best time in the first special stage of Friday, SS3 between Roure and Beuil (18.3 km). It was the first best time for the new Ford Puma Hybrid in WRC and it allowed the French legend to come back within 5.5 seconds of Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) in the overall standings.
“It was a tricky stage, it was a lot slippery in some places, it was tougher, with more ice than during the recce, but I’m happy with what I did,” Loeb said, pumped up by his successful start on Thursday evening, in the first two stages. A very sharp and very efficient Loeb, who returns to the WRC with a new co-driver, the very experienced Isabelle Galmiche, and carrying glasses that give him the looks of a (very fast) retired driver, at almost 48 years old.
Still at the top of the standings, Ogier had a fright at the end of the stage, when his rear bumper touched the safety rail on the left, because he was a bit wide in the previous turn. Nothing serious, but a real warning at the start of a day that promised to be tough, with six stages on the menu (100 km), before and after the mid-day regroup at Puget-Théniers, and with no chance to return to the service park in Monaco harbour.
“We had to make compromises in the choice of tyres, and the road conditions were changing a lot”, told Ogier at the end of the stage. He left Monaco this morning with 4 soft tires and 2 super soft for the whole day, whereas Loeb chose five soft tyres. His teammate at Toyota, Elfyn Evans, also got a free scare in the final corners of SS3, touching with the rear left of his car as well, without breaking anything. And finishing 3rd in this stage, behind the untouchables: Loeb and Ogier.
Still not confident at all in his hybrid Hyundai, Thierry Neuville, winner of the event in 2020, achieved a nice spin in a hairpin, in the middle of the stage, losing a few seconds but not damaging anything, and finished 11.6 seconds behind Ogier. “It’s a nightmare, I’ve never been so scared in a car, there’s still a lot of work to do,” the Belgian said, and he rarely talks nonsense when things are not going well.
The crash of the morning was for Adrien Fourmaux, in his Ford Puma identical to Loeb’s. The young Frenchman was on fire, matching Ogier at the first split time, after 5.7 km. But this did not last and he made a small mistake with huge consequences at km 12, hitting the embankment, rolling off and ending down under the road after jumping over the safety rail. His Ford Puma is destroyed, but the crew is safe.
Sébastien Loeb took a short break in his current domination of the 90th Monte-Carlo Rally: after four best times in the first four stages of the day, he found himself deprived of additional electric power in his Ford Puma Hybrid. So that his young teammate Gus Greensmith (25) took the opportunity to open his record in the WRC, posting the first best time of his career.
“I’m going to text him so that he leaves this one to me”, Greensmith joked when Loeb was already well underway in this SS7, the second run of the day between Guillaumes and Valberg, heading up to the ski resort on a wide and fast road. Then the Frenchman fell “out of hybrid”, which had happened a little earlier to Greensmith and denied the Ford of a hundred horsepower.
On such a fast, uphill special, it was a slight handicap, but that did not prevent Loeb from maintaining control of the general standings, 14.4 seconds ahead of Sébastien Ogier (Toyota), now again 2nd, and 15.2 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans, the vice-world champion in the other official Yaris aiming for a podium position on Sunday.
Thanks to this nice performance, Greensmith, still 7th, got even closer (less than a second) to Ott Tänak, the 2019 world champion, and he also has in sight Thierry Neuville, 4th, and Craig Breen 5th, just ahead of Tänak. The last stage of the day is scheduled between Val-de-Chalvagne and Entrevaux (SS8), over 17 km dominated Friday morning by Loeb. This 90th Rallye Monte-Carlo keeps all its promises, and we are not yet halfway there…
Fifty years after its maiden overall win on the Monte-Carlo Rally in 1971, Alpine returned to the crown jewel of the FIA World Rally Championship calendar. Despite tricky and unpredictable conditions, the five Alpine A110 Rallys at the start made it to the finish and dominated the FIA R-GT and two-wheel drive categories.
Victorious on its reappearance on the world rally scene last month at the ACI Rally Monza, Alpine renewed its relationship with a genuine motorsport monument this weekend.
Known for its atypical conditions that can include rain, snow, ice and fog in the same special stage, the Monte-Carlo Rally remains one of the most prestigious events on the international calendar.
Dreaded by everyone, its challenges enabled Alpine to forge its legend: first with the category win of Jacques Feret with the Alpine A108 in 1964, then the success of Ove Andersson in the Alpine A110 1600S in 1971, and finally the sweep of the podium by the Alpine A110 1800s to begin the World Rally Championship in 1973.
Despite an itinerary adapted to curfew measures and an edition held without spectators, the 89th Monte-Carlo Rally lived up to all its promise by offering competitors the full range of all the possible traps for the 110th anniversary of the event.
In his first Monte-Carlo Rally, Manu Guigou led the Alpine A110 Rallys to victory in the R-GT and two-wheel drive categories while finishing 22nd overall. Leader of the R-GT category from SS2, the Frenchman won ahead of 2018 FIA R-GT Champion Raphaël Astier and Cédric Robert.
Thanks to these impressive performances, Alpine can worthily celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first overall victory in Monte-Carlo in 1971. Just like this year, Alpine demonstrated extraordinary reliability as five of the Alpine A110s entered officially completed the rally back then!
Thierry Neuville – Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai), winner
“We had an incredible feeling the last couple of days and we were able to catch back the time. We have been chasing this win for a while but we showed our performance this weekend and it’s a great way to start the season.”
Sébastien Ogier – Julien Ingrassia (Toyota), 2ème
“I think we can be happy with the start of the season and starting with a podium with the new team is very good. There is some way to go to extract all of the potential from this car but I really enjoyed it.”
Elfyn Evans – Scott Martin (Toyota), 3ème
“We were happy until last night – I can’t say I have been happy today. It never really clicked really and I’m not sure of the reason. There’s some work to do but overall a positive weekend.”
After SS 12, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin lead the Rallye Monte-Carlo 2020.
One day to go and you lead Monte Carlo, Elfyn. How was your day?
Not easy, to be honest. Looking back I’ve maybe been a bit careful at times, but at the same time we have to count our lucky stars – we were properly in ditch on last stage, but every now and then you need a bit of luck. Overall it’s been pretty solid, but it was probably our run through that second stage this morning that has put us in this position now.
That second stage was incredible. Did you surprise yourself?
Maybe a little bit. It’s very difficult, you try to balance the risk with how much you push when you know you have an ice section at the end of that stage. It’s difficult to know how much to manage. I tried to be as smooth as I could and we had a good run over the ice – but I can’t tell you if it worked or not.
There’s just 6.4 seconds between you all tonight- what do you have to do to take this victory?
We have to stay focused and keep doing everything we can. We’re not sure what we’re going to be faced with tomorrow yet. Hopefully it’ll be a little bit nicer conditions than today, but you can never tell with Turini. We know we’re going to be pushed very, very hard all of the way. There’s nothing we can do about that, we have to just keep going.
Tricky conditions coming tomorrow – what do you think you’ll do about tyres?
Luckily we don’t do it tonight, or it would be a lottery. Turini is always challenging, it’s never an easy section. I’m sure we can do well. We already had a big fight with Thierry last year, so we know the notes are proved, but the driving has to be delivered tomorrow. The feeling is good in the Yaris, I hope this can carry on tomorrow.
You have six wins on the trot here, but still you want this win so bad tomorrow…
It’s quite funny we fight so hard for this victory. Monte Carlo must be so important to win, because we know if we win this one then we know we will not win the next one – we would be in trouble in Sweden or Mexico opening the road. But it shows how important Monte Carlo is in our eyes, it’s maybe the most iconic round of the championship. I’m sure it will be interesting for the fans tomorrow and I’m sure we’re going to have fun.
Maybe a little blip this morning Thierry, but a really strong afternoon…
I don’t know if there was a blip, to be honest. We have also done quite well over the day, but Elfyn was incredibly fast on that second stage – he surprised us all I think. You just have to be cautious in a couple of places and you easily lose one or two seconds in a couple of corners. At the end of the stage you lose 10 seconds in one stage and it’s hard to catch that back. I’m really happy we were able to set two fastest times this afternoon and come back to the fight for the lead.
Everyone wants to win here?
Especially when you have been so close. We started the final stage last year with a similar gap to this one tonight and I have to copy and paste the first three stages and then do better in the Power Stage. We don’t know what it’s going to be like tomorrow, but I can tell you everybody will do their best and nobody will give up. We’re going to sweat a lot and it’s going to be hard, but it’s going to be an exciting battle.
Is Elfyn ready to step up to the fight for the title?
I think it’s not just a feeling, the proof is there – he is sitting in the middle tonight. We have already been in this situation in Corsica last year. He has a great talent and a great speed and he feels very comfortable straight away with this new car – that’s promising for him and for everybody else in the coming events, but hopefully we can have the upper hand!
