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The three main players on the 92nd edition of the Monte-Carlo Rally are all on equal terms: two stage wins each. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who had already set the fastest time on SS3 early this morning, was again the fastest on SS6 early this afternoon. But he was only a second and a half ahead of Seb Ogier, who had just set two fastest times (SS4, SS5). His Toyota team-mate, Elfyn Evans, is still the overall leader, having totally dominated Thursday evening (SS1, SS2).
This was the 6th special stage of this rally, as a second run of 16.68km between the ski resort of Saint-Léger-Les-Mélèzes and the village of La Bâtie-Neuve. It was much quicker, as the ice had melted, and the gap was just 1.6s between Neuville and Ogier, and 2.6s between the Belgian Hyundai driver and Evans.
“I’ve always been quick on this stage, it’s beautiful, but it’s difficult to know how far you can push the tyres (so as not to overheat them), but I think we set a good time,” said Neuville, still in contention for a win, while Tänak has dropped back a little, over a minute behind the leader. Still the same leader though, Evans, but whose margin for error has shrunk to less than ten seconds, chased by Ogier.
Under the eyes of his former great rival, the “other Seb” Loeb, who was present at the side of the road as a simple spectator, Ogier once again defended himself well: “We’re trying not to hit the tyres too much, and for the moment it’s been a pretty good day”, said the local hero, still in striking distance of his Welsh team-mate.
A big fight also in WRC2
The situation is totally clear in the Top 8: the four leaders at the front, i.e. two Toyota drivers (Evans, Ogier) ahead of two Hyundai drivers (Neuville, Tänak), and the other four further back: Fourmaux, 12 seconds behind the Estonian, Mikkelsen, Munster and Katsuta, much further back. The Japanese driver lost five minutes this morning in a ditch on SS3, in the same curve as Tänak.
In WRC2, the battle is also raging, with twice more car manufacturers represented (6) than in Rally1 and quite a great mix of enthusiasm and experience. A third of the way through the rally, the WRC2 leader is Russia’s Nikolay Gryazin (Citroën C3), competing under a Bulgarian licence, ahead of Spain’s Pepe Lopez (Skoda Fabia RS) and France’s Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3), who was crowned in WRC3 at the end of the 2021 season. All grouped within 5 secondes, and only two stages to go before returning to Gap on Friday evening…
Two fastest times in a row for Sébastien Ogier on Friday morning, in SS4 and then SS5 between La Bréole and Selonnet (18.31km). The local hero made the most of this first loop of stages to move up to 2nd in the overall standings, 10.7 seconds behind Elfyn Evans, his Toyota team-mate. The 92nd Monte-Carlo Rally is well underway and suspense is total. For the 3rd place on the podium as well, since Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford) is driving faster and faster…
“It looks like I’m still alive. I’ve had a complicated week but I’m going to do my best. I’ll talk about it after the rally…” said a particularly emotional Seb Ogier at the end of this special stage, which marked the return to the impressive driving style which brought him eight world titles.
Faced with Ogier in maestro mode, the rally leader is still Evans, but he is now just ten seconds ahead of his French team-mate, 40 since December 17. His favourite number, the one he also carries as a race number on his black Yaris. Beaten by Ogier by 11.2 seconds on SS5, the Welshman was not confident: “There’s very little grip in the icy sections, and a lot more in the dry sections,” summed up the reigning vice-world champion.
Fourmaux raises his game
In addition to Ogier’s, the most successful performance of the stage came from M-Sport Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux, who set the 3rd fastest time just behind Evans, six-tenths only behind the Welshman. “We had a good set-up and some very good notes, so I felt good and enjoyed myself without taking too many risks. I’m happy,” said the Frenchman, back in Rally 1 after a season in WRC2.
On the Hyundai side, Ott Tänak found a good rhythm again and did better than his team-mate Thierry Neuville, on this stage, to make up for his small mistake on SS3. “I had a lot of mentions of icy conditions in my notes and I was too cautious. It’s complicated to take more risks when the co-driver’s notes say that there’s black ice everywhere”, regretted the Belgian at the stop point. He is now 3rd overall, 24.5 seconds behind Ogier, but anything is still possible on the remaining 12 stages until Sunday morning.
After the midday break in the Gap service park, a second loop is scheduled for this afternoon, with a second pass in the same three stages (SS6 to SS8). One thing is certain: they will be less slippery than in the morning version.
Last year’s winner waited until mid-morning on Friday to set his first fastest time of the 92ndMonte-Carlo Rally: best time for Sébastien Ogier in his black Toyota Yaris on the first pass of the day between Champcella and Saint-Clément (17.87km), to come within just three seconds of Neuville, who lost a handful of seconds in a spin.
“I think it’s difficult to go faster with this starting position (the same as Thursday evening, based on the 2023 championship standings), but in this stage there was a little less dirt on the road,” reacted the eight-time world champion after the 693rd fastest time of his WRC career.
“I don’t understand. I lost the rear, suddenly. I was surprised,” said Neuville, who chose the right spot for his spin: a dry, flat field in which he didn’t lose too much time. He reversed and started again, losing 9 seconds to Ogier, just when the Belgian driver could aim for a second fastest time in a row.
Evans stays ahead
The rally leader is still Elfyn Evans (Toyota), who has switched to management mode. He still holds a 18.8-second lead over Neuville going into SS5, the last of the first loop, and 21.9 seconds over Ogier. “The grip was very low in some places. It wasn’t easy and maybe I was too careful,” admitted the Welshman.
The route of SS4 was varied, dry on the whole, and the numerous spectators were very disciplined, well protected by the ACM marshals and hundreds of metres of tape. Behind Ogier and Evans, Ott Tänak (Hyundai) regained his confidence after his small mistake on SS3. With the 3rd fastest time, he moved back to 4th overall, ahead of Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford), the Frenchman happy with his new set-up. But the Estonian, the 2019 world champion, found the road “dirty”, which encouraged him to drive “clean”.
In the chasing pack, the battle continued to rage between three supporting roles in this suspenseful play: Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) and Grégoire Munster (M-Sport Ford), very close in performance at the end of this SS4. A really superb stage, from start to finish.
After a short night in Gap, the 67 remaining competitors of the 92nd Monte-Carlo Rally set off on Friday morning on a slippery and tricky special stage between Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes and La Bâtie-Neuve (SS3, 16.68km). The first laurels of the day went to Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who set his first fastest time of the rally, and the first damage was done to three members of the Top 8: Tänak, Katsuta and Munster, who all crashed out in the same corner.
You had to be wide awake this morning on Col de Moissière (1574m), as the road was very slippery on SS3. “On some portions of ice, there was no grip at all, so I was very careful. We’ve sorted out our problem from last night, so it’s going better,” explained Neuville at La Bâtie Neuve, after a long descent that was much drier than the ascent to the pass.
The Belgian, who won in Monaco in 2020, was 5.3 seconds quicker than rally leader Elfyn Evans (Toyota) in that stage, and the third fastest time on SS3 was set by Sébastien Ogier, 6.6 seconds behind Neuville. “It was OK, but I was more bothered by the dirt on the road than by the icy patches,” said the title holder, wide awake but very cautious on his home turf. “I was careful because the road conditions were very mixed,” also admitted Evans. He is well aware of the number of points to be taken in this opening round of WRC 2024, since he sometimes has a tendency to squander opportunities.
Tänak, Katsuta and Munster trapped
Three drivers were trapped in the same place, going too wide on a long right-hand curve in the forest, where the layer of ice was thin but very effective. Starting on soft tyres, they all ended up in the ditch, more or less deeply. And the spectators intervened to get them out of it, once the green light on their car was on to avoid electrocution.
Ott Tänak, the 2019 world champion, took his 150th WRC start on Thursday (19 wins, 46 podiums, 356 fastest times, half of them with Martin Jarveoja in the right seat). He lost 41.9 seconds to Neuville in the process, and Grégoire Munster, the new M-Sport Ford driver, lost a full minute. The biggest loss was for Takamoto Katsuta, stuck in the ditch for five minutes. “It’s entirely my fault”, admitted the Japanese Toyota driver before setting off again, well harnessed, towards the sunny descent of SS3.
With 5 more stages on the menu this Friday, M-Sport’s Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux has moved up one place in the overall standings. He is 4th before SS4, with a three-second lead over Tänak…
Two fastest times in two stages, 15 seconds clear of the quickest Hyundai driver in the overall standings: in the middle of the night, on narrow roads, in front of thousands of delighted fans, reigning world vice-champion Elfyn Evans (Toyota) took control of the 92nd Rallye Monte-Carlo on Thursday evening.
After putting Ott Tänak 5.2 seconds back in SS1, Evans punished the other Hyundai top driver, Thierry Neuville, in SS2: a 6.8-second gap on the Belgian on the 25.1km Bayons-Bréziers stage, and therefore a 15-second margin in the overall standings, at the end of a long evening of rallying. The public was out in force. There were campfires, fireworks, flags in abundance and lots of people lining the roads of the Alpes de Haute-Provence and Hautes-Alpes departments.
“There were portions where things went better than in others. I have no idea how the others are going to cope”, said Evans at the stop point of SS2. One more time, he had dominated the stage, head and shoulders, in his superb black Yaris.
One Hyundai driver after another. Ott Tänak, the 2019 world champion, had even more throttle problems than in SS1, so he lost out big time: 17.6 seconds down on Evans, while Neuville limited the damage rather well. “I had a small problem, so I was careful” summed up the Belgian as he emerged rather relieved from this tricky first evening.
It was also an evening that cost Andreas Mikkelsen dearly, as he returned to Hyundai in the Rally1 category that he left at the end of 2019, with a 6th place at Rally GB: “I need to get used to this (hybrid) car, it keeps accelerating when I enter the corners. And at the start of this stage, I stalled because the procedure is a bit complicated,” said the Norwegian.
Ogier on the provisional podium
“It was OK, but it’s difficult to go as fast as the frontrunners because the road is dirty,” explained Seb Ogier at the stop-off point on SS2. The eight-time world champion, who turned 40 in December, put his experience to good use throughout the evening, on roads that he knows very well. He will start Friday’s long day (6 stages) in 3rd place overall, 21.6 seconds behind Evans, ahead of Tänak (4th) and Adrien Fourmaux (5th). On his return to Rally1, the young Frenchman did much better than Mikkelsen and, above all, enjoyed himself without damaging anything on his Ford Puma.
“We may have gone a bit too far with the set-up. In the second stage, the road was even dirtier than in the first. I’m still learning how this car behaves”, Fourmaux summed up. He is in a waiting position, behind four major players of the WRC, as a big day of rallying looms on Friday in the Hautes-Alpes.
There will be two loops of three stages, totalling 105km of timed sections, and there could be a few surprises on the way, early in the morning: “Maybe there will be a bit of ice on the road on Friday morning,” warned the M-Sport driver.
World Rally Championship three-time runner-up Elfyn Evans struck a blow from the outset by setting the fastest time in the first special stage of the 92nd Rally Monte-Carlo on Thursday evening between Thoard and Saint-Geniez (SS1, 21.01km).
Equipped with four soft tyres and two spare wheels in the boot of his Toyota Yaris, the Welshman started first, thanks to his world ranking at the end of last year. He took advantage of an ultra-clean road, dry from start to finish, to set a time of 12:12.9 on this special stage run in the opposite direction to the 2022 edition, via the famous Col de Fontbelle, at an altitude of 1,300 metres. “It was surprising to have such a high level of grip at the start of the rally. I don’t know if I managed to make the most of it, but overall it went well”, commented the Toyota driver.
The best resistance to Evans came from the most capped driver in the Hyundai camp. Estonia’s Ott Tänak, the 2019 world champion, lost just 5.2 seconds to the Welshman, thanks to having set off, like his team-mate Thierry Neuville, with just one spare wheel in the boot, to save a little weight. And although he encountered some problems with his main pedal sometimes staying in full throttle, which is always annoying.
Ogier ten seconds behind Evans on a dirty road
“It was the right solution,” said Neuville at the stop, not too disappointed at having lost 8.3 seconds to Evans because he wanted above all to avoid overheating, and therefore damaging his soft tyres, before attacking the next stage, 25km long between Bayons and Bréziers. The Belgian, who won here in 2020, knows that Rally Monte-Carlo is always “a very long event” and that it’s important not to get carried away early. He will have plenty of other opportunities to shine, throughout the 17 special stages until Sunday morning’s grand finale.
Last but not least, Sébastien Ogier, the ultimate favourite, lost 9.8 seconds to his team-mate Evans, with a very simple explanation: “The road was very dirty, so the first on the road (Evans) really had a big advantage”, summed up the eight-time world champion, winner of the 2023 edition. “I was expecting it, so I’m not surprised,” added the driver from the Hautes-Alpes, before setting off towards his native region.
The other Frenchman competing in Rally1, Adrien Fourmaux, was delighted with the first stage of his comeback to the top category. “There were lots of spectators and lights, and I love driving at night,” said Adrien Fourmaux, on whom rest the main hopes of M-Sport. But he had to slow down in places at the wheel of his Ford Puma: “The road was so dirty that in some bends I couldn’t see the trajectory, there was dirt and stones everywhere, so I had to slow down”. But that didn’t stop him from setting the 5th fastest time on the stage, 16.2 seconds behind Evans. Quite a good start.
HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco was present on Casino Square, on Thursday, for the official start of the 92nd Monte-Carlo Rally. Following the withdrawal this morning of an Italian crew’s VW Polo GTI, the 69 competitors then set off for a long road section (over 200 km) to the first two special stages, scheduled this evening between Alpes de Haute-Provence and Hautes-Alpes.
“It’s never easy at night, so we will need to be vigilant, even if there’s no snow. The rally won’t be easy though and there will be a lot of pitfalls, as usual”, said Sébastien Ogier, the eight-time world rally champion, on the starting podium, after a discreet exchange of words with HSH Prince Albert II. His Toyota Yaris, now in a superb matt black livery, will carry his lucky number, 17. The driver from the Hautes-Alpes is aiming for a 10th success in the Principality, having last year taken the all-time record for Rallye Monte-Carlo victories to 9 (the same number as Seb Loeb’s world titles…).
Two special stages on Thursday night
As it does every year, Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) pulled out all the stops and invited a number of VIPs to this top-of-the-range start ceremony. They watched a parade of 70 superb rally cars, in slow motion and, for the eight hybrid cars in the top category (Rally 1), in a relative eco-friendly silence: three Toyota Yaris, three Hyundai i20s and two Ford Pumas entered by Malcolm Wilson’s British M-Sport team.
As this is the year of the big return to Gap, everyone set off on a long road section (over 200 km) heading to a couple of very tricky special stages: Thoard-Saint Geniez (SS1, 21km) from 8.35pm, very close to Digne-les-Bains, then Bayons-Bréziers (SS2, 25km), closer to Gap, from 10pm for the first cars. And a little later for the private competitors, expected until 3am in the new service park in Gap.
The night will be short before a potentially strenuous Friday, with the start set for 8am for two loops of three special stages (SS3 to SS5, then SS6 to SS8, totalling 105km of timed sections). And that means a dozen hours of fierce battling at every level of the overall standings. This is the 92nd Rally Monte-Carlo and, once again, it’s going to be a great show!
Review the Ceremony
There are only two World Champions entered in this 92nd Rally Monte-Carlo, Ott Tänak (Hyundai) and Sébastien Ogier (Toyota). And it was the Estonian, crowned in 2019, before Covid, who set the fastest time in the shakedown on Wednesday afternoon in the hills above Gap. In his very first timed run of the 2024 season, he clocked a time of 2:00.4 over 3.28km of a small, dry road, but which quickly became smeared with dirt, with most of the competitors generously taking the apex in the fastest corners. Three years have passed since the 2021 edition, run behind closed doors and with masks because of Covid-19, when Monte-Carlo competitors last took advantage of this shakedown to fine-tune their rally cars.
On his first run, Tänak did barely better than Elfyn Evans (Toyota) over the 3km shakedown. It was just by one tenth of a second, the weather was good and daylight was only beginning to fade. Behind Tänak and the 2:00.5 clocked by the Welshman, 2nd at the end of last season, 3rd place in this shakedown went to another Hyundai driver, Thierry Neuville (2:01.2), two tenths quicker than Ogier (2:01.4). And for the places of honour in this full-scale set-up session, the third Toyota driver, Takamoto Katsuta, was ahead of the third Hyundai driver, Andreas Mikkelsen, back in the top class after several seasons in WRC2.
Ogier, the eight-time world champion, is in search of a 10th win on Sunday in the Principality, while Tänak has never managed to succeed in this very special rally. On Thursday evening, serious business will begin, with two special stages (SS1, SS2) starting at 20h00 in the Alpes de Haute-Provence and Hautes-Alpes departments. This will happen after the ritual and very official start, on Casino Square in Monte-Carlo. You will be able to follow it live from 4:45 pm, local time, on the Facebook and YouTube pages of Automobile Club de Monaco.
There are four main contenders aiming for victory in the 92nd Rally Monte-Carlo, two of them in Toyota Yaris and the other two in Hyundai i20s. Sébastien Ogier, eight-time world champion and nine-time winner in the Principality, the last of which at the start of 2023, will be challenging for the win against another world champion, Ott Tänak, who was crowned champion in 2019 and returns to Hyundai after a short-lived spell with M-Sport Ford last season.
The French maestro couldn’t miss the return of Rally Monte-Carlo to his native land, with a service park set up all week in Gap, the prefecture of Hautes-Alpes. He will be the number 1 favourite on roads that he knows like the pockets of his racing gear. And he will have alongside him, to carry the torch of the Japanese manufacturer, the vice-world champion Elfyn Evans, but not the two-time reigning world champion, Kalle Rovanperä.
Rovanperä steps back
At just 23 years of age, the young Finn has decided to take a step back for a few months, to rest a little after 15 intensive seasons behind the wheel of a rally car. Like Ogier in recent years, he will be content with a partial programme, which gives hope of a world title to the other major players in the WRC. Starting with Tänak, who has already had the honour and privilege of claiming a world crown, in 2019, just before the Covid-19 epidemic.
For Elfyn Evans, who has been a regular 2nd in the world championship since 2020 (three years out of four), and above all for Thierry Neuville, who has already finished on the final WRC podium eight times (5 times 2nd, three times 3rd), this could be the year or never, while waiting for the return of the Finnish prodigy, next season. And a win in Monte-Carlo on Sunday would be the ideal way to launch this long-awaited season for the Belgian driver, who lives in Monaco: 155 WRC starts since 2009, for 19 wins and 63 podium finishes.
Shakedown in Gap
An initial assessment of the situation, and above all of the forces at work, took place Wednesday afternoon on the heights of Gap, for the traditional 3.28km shakedown. The day’s programme included an autograph session and a series of public interviews in the service park’s Fanzone.
The shakedown was also intended to give the two young M-Sport Ford drivers, France’s Adrien Fourmaux and Luxembourg’s Grégoire Munster, a chance to fine-tune their Puma Hybrids in preparation for the first two special stages, scheduled for Thursday evening in the Alpes de Haute-Provence and the Hautes-Alpes. After the start ceremony in front of the Casino de Monte-Carlo, a moment eagerly awaited by the Principality’s numerous motorsport fans. Can’t wait for Thursday…
Through the combined efforts of the Automobile Club de Monaco, the promoter of the World Rally Championship and the FIA, the 92nd Rallye Monte-Carlo will once again be fully broadcast this year on the Canal Group channels, with 2 special stages in free-to-air.
This year, the Canal Group will once again be offering a special coverage of the first round of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship. The Rallye Monte-Carlo will be broadcast live every day, once again with 8-time winner Julien Ingrassia as co-driver, alongside Laurent Dupin and Pauline Sanzey. Pierre-Louis Loubet will commentate with Stéphane Genti and Jules Deremble. 2 Special Stages will be broadcast free-to-air on Canal+: Esparron / Oze (SS12) on Saturday afternoon from 14:05 and La Bollène-Vésubie / Col du Turini (PowerStage) on Sunday from 12:15.
Monaco Info will be there to follow the Official Start from the Place du Casino on Thursday from 4.30pm. “Les Experts du Rallye » (Vanessa Dessi, Christophe Pacaud, Franck Phillips) will be on hand each evening to review the day’s special stages: Friday 26 – 9.00pm / Saturday 27 – 9.00pm / Sunday 28 – 9.00pm.
The Rallye Monte-Carlo 2024 will also be available live and in full on the Rally TV channel (www.rally.tv) with exclusive content (videos, archives, broadcasts).
The Rallye Monte-Carlo 2024 will finally be available live and in full on the Rally TV channel (www.rally.tv) with exclusive content (videos, archives, broadcasts).
