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Day 3 of the 93rd Rallye Monte-Carlo got off to a surprise start with Grégoire Munster, M-Sport Ford’s top driver this season, setting his first ever best time in a WRC stage. It came on SS10, between La Motte-Chalançon and Saint-Nazaire-le-Désert (27km), when he was the first to pass on a dry, cleaner road than for his main rivals, as the sun rose over the Drôme mountains.
Munster was first on the road because of a major power failure last night on the road section to Gap Service Park, which cost him a 10-minute penalty in the overall classification. When this happened, Grégoire in 6th place overall, at the end of a very satisfying rallying day.
‘Congratulations to Grégoire. He was fast yesterday and he’s on the right track. But there were big differences in the road conditions between his run and mine,’ said Sébastien Ogier, a good sport but a realist. As leader, and because of the reverse starting order, it was a much dirtier road than Munster, with dirt coming off the ropes, that the eight-time world champion encountered. Hence the small gap in performance at the end: just 8 tenths, over 27 km, but that in no way detracts from the merits of the driver from Benelux.
‘It was really tricky, there was a bit of everything: some wet sections with muddy ropes, then a much faster and wider road. It’s a challenge for sure, and I was happy to be the first on the road for this one. Of course I’m disappointed about yesterday, but the team did a good job and managed the night well to allow us to be here again today, so it’s a good way to learn,’ said Munster at the stop. He then waited quietly in his cockpit to see if his rivals were doing better than him. Until deliverance and a great moment of emotion, alongside his team-mate Louis Louka. Damn dust in the eye.
It was Grégoire Munster’s first ever WRC stage win, but not the first for a driver with a Luxembourg driving licence. Grégoire has dual nationality, Belgian (through his father, a former rally driver) and Luxembourgish (through his mother). And just 48 years ago, at the 1977 Monte-Carlo Rally, two drivers from the Grand Duchy shone: Alain Beauchef, who won the first special stage between Les Chanets and La Vilette in a 2000 Ford Escort RS. Then, at the end of the same edition, Nicolas Koob (Porsche 911 Carrera RS) in SS26, between Roquestéron and Bouyon. To complete the picture, the winner that year was Italian legend Sandro Munari, whose mythical Lancia Stratos graces the official poster of the 2025 Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique (January 29-February 4).
In the overall classification of this 93rd edition, not much has changed. Ogier still leads. Just behind him, Elfyn Evans (Toyota) and Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai), battling for 2nd place (1.6 seconds apart), set the same time, to the nearest tenth, on SS10. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), meanwhile, lost another minute after his electronics were completely reset at the start of the stage. When it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
For safety reasons, Race Control has decided to move the starting point of the special stages 11 and 14 (Aucelon / Recoubeau-Jansac 1 and Aucelon / Recoubeau-Jansac 2), which will take place this Saturday. This will shorten the stages by 5.37 km from the initial start.
The restrictions on public access to these stages areas remain unchanged.
Special stages 11 and 14 length will now be 15.48km.
Another consequence of these changes: first car will leave Parc Fermé at 6:55am on Saturday, 3 minutes earlier than planned.
Sébastien Ogier ended Day 2 of the 93rd Monte-Carlo Rally just as he began the opening night on Thursday, setting two fastest times in quick succession. First in SS8, on his home turf, and then just around the corner in SS9, between La Bréole and Selonnet (18.31km). Two ‘masterclasses’ in a row, in tricky conditions and with all his rivals reduced to the role of extras. But there’s still a long way to go…
‘It was a good end to the day for us, but I fought hard for it. Up until the last two stages, I was a bit on the defensive, but then I felt better. I changed my driving mode’, smiled Ogier, delighted with this fine day of rallying and with his 12.6 second lead over Elfyn Evans, his Toyota team-mate. This should give him plenty to look forward to on Saturday, with two loops of three stages in the Drôme region.
As has often been the case since the start of this rally, Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) was very good, the only driver to rival the eight-time world champion. The driver from the north of France finished 2nd on the stage again, 2.8 seconds behind Ogier, and he will start Saturday’s rally with a clear objective: to catch Evans on a regular basis by continuing to attack as hard as possible… while keeping a small margin for error.
‘It was another clean stage, even if I lost a bit of time when I made a small mistake. It was a really good afternoon for us,’ said Fourmaux before setting off again for the service park in Gap. He is only 14.2 behind Ogier this evening, and especially 1.6 behind Evans, who also put in a great day’s driving.
9 more stages to go…
At the halfway point of the rally, after 9 stages, 8 of which were hotly contested (and one cancelled, SS5 on Friday morning), the balance sheet is in Toyota’s favour, with three Gazoo Racing drivers in the top 4 (Ogier, Evans, Rovanperä), but Fourmaux seems determined and, above all, capable of disrupting the Japanese party. After five learning seasons with M-Sport Ford, the Frenchman seems to have turned a corner by joining Hyundai, and he has negotiated the early pitfalls of this rally much better than his two world champion team-mates.
Thierry Neuville had already been trapped in SS6 at the end of the morning, and this time he was the victim of a puncture of the front-left tyre, on the same stage, which ruined SS9 for him. ‘I don’t know if I should have stopped to change my tyre’, said the Belgian at the end of the stage, having lost a further two minutes in the adventure. He then returned to Gap, with a new wheel, in 9th place overall, 4 minutes behind Ogier. Nothing to be proud of for the new world champion, who has often struggled in this rally (2 wins in 15 appearances).
In WRC2, the final stage of the day brought about a change in the leaders. Yohan Rossel now leads the way in his PH Sport Citroën C3, ahead of Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda Fabia RS). There are still 9 stages to go until midday on Sunday. Everything is still possible, the best and the worst…
It was something he really wanted to do, and he did it, at last: on Friday afternoon, home-grown Sébastien Ogier won ‘his’ special stage from Saint-Léger les Mélèzes to La Bâtie-Neuve (SS8, 16.68 km) in front of his family and friends. And as luck would have it, the eight-time world champion regained the overall lead, 6.8 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans, his Toyota team-mate.
“I knew that all my family and friends were there, and I’d never won this stage. So I said to myself that I had to do it one day and I did my best”, a relieved and happy Ogier said after crossing the finish line of the stage closest to his village, where he had just changed his tyres. It was the same ritual as in the morning, except that SS5 had been cancelled at the last minute, and that he had not been able to go for that rather special best stage time.
It was, as expected, a very tricky stage, in which all the top drivers started with four super-soft tyres and zero stud, while the descent offered a long, very tricky section, totally snow-covered and icy, between the trees. They were all very careful, using a variety of different lines, and the only one to get caught out was Evans, who did a half spin without hitting anything and lost a handful of seconds I the process.
After Ogier, neither Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai), who came second on the special, 3.9 seconds behind Ogier, nor Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) managed to do better than the Frenchman, and so he achieved his sentimental, symbolic and personal goal: a victory ‘at home’, really, close to the village of Forest Saint Julien, in the Champsaur région, where he often played boule lyonnaise, when he was younger, while taking his ski instructor’s certificate.
It was also his third fastest stage time of the 93rd Monte Carlo Rally, a better score than any of his rivals, for the moment. After SS8, and with just one stage to go in this rather hectic day, two French drivers, Ogier and Fourmaux (in the best Hyundai), are still in the Top 3, sandwiching Evans (2nd).
In WRC2, the soap opera continues: Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3) has clawed back another 3.6 seconds from Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda Fabia RS) and is now just nine seconds behind the category leader… who chose not to score any points in this event.
Elfyn Evans (Toyota), who had already won SS3 on Thursday evening, won the first special stage of the second loop on Friday afternoon between Saint-Maurice and Aubessagne (SS7, 18.6km) in the Hautes-Alpes. The Welshman set a time of 10’35‘’6, a good minute better than Kalle Rovanperä’s time on the same stage earlier in the morning. And as he drove 6.4 seconds faster than his team-mate Sébastien Ogier, he widened the gap at the top of the overall standings, with Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) still on the provisional podium.
‘The grip was much better than this morning, but I didn’t attack enough,’ said Ogier at the stop. As for Thierry Neuville, who had bent his rear left suspension this morning on SS6, he began his comeback by setting the third fastest time of the stage.
The Belgian had left the Gap service park with a perfectly repaired Hyundai i20N, and summed up the situation well at the end of the stage: “I really have to thank the guys and I’m happy to be here,’ said the reigning world champion. ‘It wasn’t easy, I had no confidence in the grip levels, there were too many gaps from one section to the next, and it was difficult to drive this stage. As we passed the frontrunners, there was no obvious trajectory in front of us and it wasn’t really comfortable. At the end of the stage, there was a lot of dirt on the road”.
After SS7, the leading trio was still made up of two Toyota drivers, Evans and Ogier at 7.9 seconds, closely followed by Fourmaux, at 7.5 seconds, in the best Hyundai. As for Kalle Rovanperä, in another Toyota, he has climbed back to 4th place by taking advantage of Neuville and Tänak’s problems this morning on SS6.
In WRC2, Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3) made up six seconds in one go on Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda Fabia RS) and is now just a dozen seconds behind the Russian-Bulgarian, who still leads the category.
SS8, which was cancelled on Friday morning, was ready to allow the battle to continue in all categories. Sarah Rumeau (Citroën C3), supported by the Fédération française du sport automobile (FFSA), is still in the top half of the overall classification, for her first international outing in a WRC2, as is Eliott Delecour, François’ son, aged just 17, in his Opel Corsa entered in the RC4 category.
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’!
Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota), the two-time Finnish World Champion, was wide awake on Friday morning and won the day’s first special stage, between Saint-Maurice and Aubessagne (SS4, 18.6 km), in the Hautes-Alpes, with a time of 11’38”3. As a direct consequence of this tricky stage, another Toyota driver, Elfyn Evans, took the lead of the 93rd Rallye Monte-Carlo from reigning world champion Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) by just eight-tenths of a second.
“I may have made the best tire choice for these conditions,” said Rovanperä at the end of the stage. “The beginning was quite icy and at the end, the road was dirty,” added the young Finn. He took advantage of his starting position, several minutes after Neuville and Evans, to set a significant time, on a road that was increasingly dirty but also increasingly dry. And he made a fine comeback in the overall standings, in just ten minutes. Rovanperä is still 6th, but 22 seconds only behind the leader, instead of 43 seconds on Thursday night when he went to bed.
Two other drivers took advantage of the rising sun and more favourable road conditions by the minute: Luxembourg’s Grégoire Munster (Ford Puma) and another Finn, the talented Sami Pajari (Toyota), last year’s WRC2 champion. They took 2nd and 3rd places on SS4, ahead of all the other competitors, starting with Ott Tänak (Hyundai), in much better form than on Thursday evening, and the two Frenchmen, Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) and Sébastien Ogier (Toyota).
“I had a clean stage, I had a lot of fun with the car, I enjoyed myself. I just had to guess where the ice was melting,” Fourmaux analyzed at the stop. “The conditions were tricky, it was more like a Monte Carlo, with ice in places, than last night with all the mud on the road,” admitted Ogier, still clinging on to 3rd place behind Evans and Neuville, and just four seconds behind the Welsh leader.
In WRC2, the battle was on again, with Oliver Solberg (Toyota Yaris Rally2) setting his second fastest time in a row, in the category, ahead of Russian-Bulgarian Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda Fabia RS). He also managed a Top 4 overall on this stage, less than five seconds behind Rovanperä, taking advantage of better road conditions, almost an hour after the leaders had set off.
With the top three within 4 seconds of each other and the top six grouped in 22 seconds, Day 2 of the rally is shaping up to be a great one. But SS5 has been cancelled after several spectators had to be rescued on the stage. The third stage of the morning loop, SS6, remains scheduled for the end of the morning, between La Bréole and Selonnet (18.31km).
World Champion Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) was leading the 93rd Monte-Carlo Rally when he reached Gap Service Park on Thursday evening, at the end of a first evening dominated by the Toyotas, in terms of pure performance: 2 best times for Sébastien Ogier and the third for Elfyn Evans. And by the resilience of the Belgian driver, always at the top of the standings and eventually leading when it was time to go to bed.
Thursday’s third and final special stage, between Avançon and Notre-Dame-du-Laus (SS3, 13.97 km), was marked by a superb performance from Elfyn Evans (Toyota), the runner-up in the previous World Championship. “I didn’t feel confident in the first two stages, but I felt much better in the third,” said the Welshman at the end. And with good reason: he had just beaten Neuville, by 5.4 seconds, and Rovanperä, by 10.7 seconds, on a relatively short, bumpy stage that was very dirty in places.
“I didn’t think it would be so slippery. I got trapped, but it’s not so bad at the end,” conceded Ogier, who made his first small mistake of the rally. A big slip midway through the stage almost sent him down an embankment, but his experience spoke for itself. The Gap native stopped his Yaris just in time to get back on the road and finish 23.5 seconds behind Evans. All his efforts on the first two stages had been undone, but that’s the Monte Carlo law. The slightest error is paid for in cash, especially in the evening, when road conditions are very difficult to guess.
Unruly fans, neutralized stage…
As expected, the end of the stage was lit up by a host of smoke bombs and fireworks, as the fans were very numerous in this very fast section. Another driver to lose ground on SS3 was Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai): 27.8 seconds down on Evans, after being hot on his heels after the first two stages. “I was very careful with the ice patches. It’s a very long rally…” said the 29-year-old Frenchman, recruited this winter by the South Korean brand.
In the overall standings, Neuville is in the lead after the first evening and will continue to lead the way tomorrow morning, around Gap. Behind him, two Toyota drivers, Evans at 2 seconds and Ogier at 12.8 seconds, will lead the chase. They will be closely followed by the other two Hyundai drivers, Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux, at 27 and 30 seconds respectively. In WRC2, the suspense is also intact, but Nikolay Gryazin, in his Skoda Fabia RS, dominated the first evening, despite a burst of pride from Oliver Solberg (Toyota Yaris Rally2), the fastest on SS3.
This SS3 was interrupted, then definitively neutralized after the start of Eric Camilli, entered in WRC2. This was due to a few unruly spectators, who were finally deprived of the passage of some fifty competitors on the most spectacular stage of the evening.
Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) continued imposing an infernal pace on Thursday evening, setting his second fastest time in a row in the second special stage of this 93rd edition, between Faucon-du-Caire and Bréziers (SS2, 21.18 km), the longest special stage of the first evening.
The eight-time world champion completed another faultless stage, but was only 9 tenths ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), now in 2nd place, 5.3 seconds behind the Frenchman. “The conditions on this stage were much more uneven than in the previous one. I was a little too cautious, especially at the end, but it was more complicated to be as committed as in SS1. I didn’t do a good stage, but I set a good time,” said Ogier at the end of SS2.
“This stage was very dirty at the end, so I had to slow down. I think the spectators dirtied the road a bit (by stepping on it),” said Neuville, a two-time winner in the Principality (2020 2024). As for Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai), 3rd on this special stage just 1.2 seconds behind Ogier, the absolute benchmark for Monte-Carlo performance, he is now just two tenths behind Elfyn Evans (Toyota) in the overall standings.
The Frenchman had announced before the start on Thursday on Casino Square that he intended to run a waiting race, in his first race in a Hyundai after five seasons with Ford M-Sport. “The speed at the start of this stage was huge. It was very tricky, with ice here and there. A special stage worthy of the Monte Carlo,” summed up Fourmaux, author of five podiums last year in a M-Sport Ford, and 5th in the 2024 championship.
Behind the leading trio, provisionally made up of Ogier, Neuville and Fourmaux, another Hyundai driver, Ott Tänak, took 4th place on SS2, 6.4 seconds behind Ogier. This was a much better result than Kalle Rovanperä, who was only 9th on the stage, 22.9 seconds behind Ogier, i.e. more than a second lost per kilometer. The Finn, twice world champion, was even beaten by his compatriot Sami Pajari, also with Toyota but a Rally1 debutant.
“It’s not me who’s quicker than Kalle, it’s the two of us who are bad,” smiled the 2024 WRC2 champion, with total humility. In WRC2, the battle continued at the front between Russian-Bulgarian Nikolay Gryazin, in his Skoda Fabia RS, and Frenchman Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3). They finished ahead of Oliver Solberg (Toyota Yaris Rally2), who went back on the attack after a touch and a wheel change in SS1.
Monte Carlo maestro Sébastien Ogier (9 wins) got the 93rd edition off to a flying start, setting the fastest time in the first special stage between Digne-les-Bains and Chaudon-Norante (SS1, 19.01 km) on Thursday evening.
Fitted with new Hankook super-soft tires, the eight-time world champion’s Toyota Yaris was very efficient, and Ogier’s driving did the rest on a narrow, slippery road that was not yet too dirty. In 11 minutes, 30 seconds and 4 tenths, the Frenchman inflicted 3.9 seconds on Elfyn Evans, his Toyota teammate, and 4.4 seconds on the new World Champion, Thierry Neuville, in the number 1 Hyundai.
“I felt pretty good. I was expecting conditions to be a little trickier. In the end, it was a pleasant stage, in terms of driving,” said Ogier at the stop. The pleasant surprise of this first special was Adrien Fourmaux (4th), the new Hyundai driver, sandwiched between his two World Champion team-mates, Neuville and Ott Tänak (5th). The Estonian, who set the fastest time in the shakedown at Gap on Wednesday evening, has never before managed to win the Monte Carlo Rally.
Another relative surprise was Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota), back full-time in the WRC after a year of semi-rest (7 rallies contested, 2 wins), with a 15.6-second deficit on Ogier. But he wasn’t surprised: “The other drivers did this stage last year, not me,” recalled the young Finn, the youngest double world champion in the history of the WRC, in 2022 and 2023.
In WRC2, the battle began on a high note, with Bulgarian Nikolay Gryazin setting the fastest time in his Skoda Fabia RS. Just two tenths ahead of Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3). Meanwhile, Oliver Solberg had to stop on the stage to change a rear wheel, his rim having been damaged when he hit a large stone. The Swede, son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg, lost almost 5 minutes in this first special stage. That already makes him a late contender in the race for WRC2 victory. But the rally still has a long way to go.
