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“It was the stage with the greatest risks of a puncture, so I was very careful, same as for the first run this morning. I am happy that this stage is behind me”, a relieved Ogier said at the end of this long stage (21.78km) contested with full headlights glowing between Ubraye and Entrevaux.
The Finnish reigning World Champion sent a serious warning to his glorious elder from Hautes-Alpes: 9.8 seconds all at once, enough to bring down to 16 seconds the gap with Ogier in the overall standings, instead of 36 seconds in the morning, when all crews left the Port of Monaco.
Following his first two stage wins of the year, Saturday afternoon, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai Motorsport) showed once again that he was taking good measure of his new i20, by setting the second fastest time in SS14. And once again, he was quicker than Elfyn Evans, who will start Sunday with a 24.5 debit on the Belgian, in sight of the final podium but with a mountain to climb.
When Ogier set off for the Port of Monaco, he knew that he had four more stages (SS15 to SS18) to manage properly, quietly and cleanly on Sunday, i.e. 67 km timed.
Leading the rally since Thursday evening, the 8-time world champion is still looking for a record 9thsuccess in the Principality. The only thing he could accept not winning on Sunday is the Power Stage.
Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai Motorsport) won his first stage of the 91st Rally Monte-Carlo, and of the 2023 WRC season, during the second pass between Le Fugeret and Thorame-Haute (SS12, 16.8 km). The first stage win not scored by a Toyota Gazoo Racing driver since the start on Thursday evening.
“I’m happy, I had a good pace,” said the Belgian on the finish line at the bottom of Colle Saint-Michel. This was his 323rd stage win in WRC (143 starts, 55 podiums, 17 wins). A great performance against dominating Toyota Yaris and a great reward for his now legendary ability to resist, his patience and his undisputable talent behind the wheel.
After this SS12, Neuville is still 3rd overall, 39 seconds behind Sébastien Ogier and only 9.5 seconds behind Kalle Rovanperä, and still holds a good margin (19.5 seconds) over Elfyn Evans, Toyota’s third top driver. Enough to consider the rest of the operations with serenity, especially if a puncture, always possible with increasingly worn out Soft and Super Soft Pirelli tires, disrupts the general classification, at one time or another.
In WRC2, the situation is stable, as Russian Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda Fabia) is still in control against his two main French rivals, Yohan Rossel and Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën C3). They will also have to be wary of the stones and all those traps making up the timeless charm of Rally Monte-Carlo, sometimes causing twists and turns.
“I didn’t push too hard, I just tried to do a clean stage. My car seemed more efficient than this morning”, said Rovanperä, the youngest World Champion in the history of WRC, at the end of SS8, where Sébastien Loeb had won in 2022 ahead of Ogier, just one year ago. He then set off for Monaco with a 36-second debit over his French team-mate, and ten more stages to negotiate on Saturday and Sunday morning.
“I’m very happy, obviously the risk of punctures was higher in this stage, so I took it easy. I am just happy to be able to bring the car back to the service park,” Ogier said a few minutes later. He had punctured a tire in this stage last year, in the heat of a final battle with Loeb, and offered an historic win to his greatest rival.
Saturday morning, when all drivers leave Monaco for the six stages of Day 3, Ogier will also be 37.9 seconds ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), 3rd, 54.2 seconds ahead of Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford), 4th, and 1:02.3 minute ahead of Elfyn Evans (Toyota), who suffered a very costly puncture in the morning. This makes it three Toyota drivers in the Top 5, with over 175 timed kilometers to race. Place your bets!
He did not come as a tourist, Sébastien Ogier, to the 91st Monte-Carlo Rally: two stage wins to start without any hesitation in the process, and without leaving crumbs for his well-armed rivals. In SS2, between La Cabanette and Col de Castillon (24.90km), the eight-time World Champion upped the pace and relegated Elfyn Evans, his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate, 4.7 seconds back, instead of 1.3 second in SS1, over 15 km.
“For once, we are not opening the road and that is a real advantage”, Ogier explained at the end of SS2. Starting in sixth position on the road, by virtue of the 2022 WRC classification, the luxury freelancer of the Japanese brand was not surprised in the very slippery left corner, with numerous spectators, located at km 10.5 of this SS2. A few minutes after another one of his teammates, 2022 World Champion Kalle Rovanperä, made a mistake, as did Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), exactly in the same turn.
“I don’t know what happened, I had no grip and I certainly wasn’t the first to get caught out. I could see the tracks on the road but it was too late to react,” Neuville said. He lost around ten seconds in the incident, just like Rovanperä. This is two seconds more than 2019 champion Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford), still faced with power cuts when he changed gears in his hybrid Ford Puma.
After these first two tricky stages, everyone returned to the Port of Monaco for a well-deserved night’s rest. This first day had started early, with the Peille shakedown, and it ended more than twelve hours later, at Col de Castillon. Friday will be even more challenging with six special stages on the card (SS3 to SS8), i.e. 105 km of pure rallying around Puget-Théniers and Entrevaux (Alpes de Haute-Provence).
At the start on Friday morning, Ogier will hold a six-second advantage on Evans (2nd), and he will also benefit from a 15.4 margin over Tänak (3rd) and 15.5 over Neuville (4th), the former teammates at Hyundai. He stands 17.1 ahead of Rovanperä (5th), the “new generation” Finn, 32.1 over Dani Sordo (6th) in another Hyundai, and 40.3 over Pierre-Louis Loubet (7th) in the other works Puma of the M-Sport Ford team. Bring on Day 2!
Three undisputable headliners of the 91st edition of Rally Monte-Carlo kicked off this Thursday morning at the “shakedown” between Sainte-Agnès and Peille (2.29km): Frenchman Sébastien Ogier (Toyota), an 8-time World Champion, in search of a 9th record success in the Principality, Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), the multiple vice-World Champion, often placed, never crowned, and Estonian Ott Tänak, the 2019 World Champion, back at M-Sport Ford, in the team that allowed him to burst on the rally scene.
One rally driver is missing, the legendary Sébastien Loeb, who won last year at the respectable age of 47, but he could not reasonably follow up, in such a short time, a superb 2ndplace in the Dakar rally-raid, Sunday, with such a demanding rally as the Monte-Carlo. Even if the weather conditions are expected to be mild, with almost completely dry asphalt roads. And this regardless of the outside temperature when the crews will leave the Port of Monaco Service Park early in the morning.
We will also have to follow closely, of course, the youngest world champion in the history of the World Rally Championship (WRC): Finnish star Kalle Rovanperä, 22, crowned at the end of 2022 at the end of an incredible season for a driver with so limited experience. His calm is already legendary. It will serve him well during this 91st edition which, like all previous ones, will be tricky, difficult and complicated to manage.
For the second season of hybrid cars in the Rally1 category, inaugurated last year at the same time, the first stage times of 2023 will be known this Thursday evening in Col de Turini (SS1, 15.12km) and Col de Castillon (SS2, 24.90km), so close to Monaco. They will give an initial trend on the potential of the forces involved this year. With a special mention for another young driver: Pierre-Louis Loubet, starting his first full season at M-Sport Ford, the family team of Malcolm Wilson, alongside Tänak. Very promising!
As a result of the combined work of the Automobile Club de Monaco, the promoter of the World Rally Championship and the FIA, the Rallye Monte-Carlo will again be broadcast in its totality this year on the TV channels of the Canal Group, with 2 special stages broadcast in free-to-air.
A special programme for a legendary rally. With the presence of 8-time Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Julien Ingrassia as co-driver, with Laurent Dupin and Manon David, and commentary provided by Stéphane Genti and Nicolas Ciamin, the Canal Group will be offering a unique coverage of this 91st edition. In addition, the Rallye Monte-Carlo will be broadcast continuously on Canal+ on Sunday morning from 7.50am to the PowerStage podium, with 4 special stages on the programme and features during the liaison times.
Monaco Info will be there to follow the Official Start from the Place du Casino on Thursday at 6.25pm. “Les Experts du Rallye” (Vanessa Dessi, Frédéric Helion, Christophe Pacaud, Franck Phillips) will review the stages of the day: Thursday 19 – 11.30pm / Friday 20 – 9pm / Saturday 21 – 10.30pm / Sunday 22 – 6.30pm.
On the digital front, the Automobile Club de Monaco will be broadcasting the Rally Start Ceremony live from the Casino Square in Monaco, as well as the Prize-Giving Ceremony. These events will be broadcast on the ACM Facebook and YouTube pages and on our website.
It will also be possible to follow the Start Ceremony on the Monaco Info website, Facebook page and mobile application.
There will be 75 crews starting from 6.30pm on Thursday 19th January from the Casino Square in Monte Carlo. In total, 10 cars will be entered in the WRC category, 27 in WRC2, 5 in RGT and 33 amateurs.
The battle for victory is sure to be fierce! Kalle Rovanperä – Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT (2022 World Champion), Sébastien Ogier – Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT (8 Times World Champion & 8-Times Monte-Carlo’s winner), Ott Tanäk – M-Sport Ford WRT (2019 World Champion) and Thierry Neuville – Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT (2020 Monte-Carlo’s Winner) are all 4 main favourites. The suspense should also be there in the secondary categories (WRC 2 / RGT / non-priority).
With less than a month to go before the start, discover the detailed maps of the 2023 Rallye Monte-Carlo route. In the Spectators Area of this page, under the heading Maps, have a look on the interactive maps via Google Maps and/or download the selected files.
Find also the access conditions to each public area (access roads, closing and reopening times), in order to plan your visit to this 91st edition. Spectator information
We remind you that these areas are dedicated to the reception of the public (marked by green net or green tape), with a minimum overhang of 1.50 m and out of the path of the competitors. Outside these areas, spectators are not permitted. It is not permitted to enter the special stages and to move around in them, on the road or on the shoulders, 30 minutes before the start of the first competitor and until the end of the event. Failure to comply with these rules may result in the delay or cancellation of the special stage.
See you on Saturday 6th May 2023 for the 6th edition of the Monaco E-Prix, which will be the 9th round of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
A single price of €30 is applied for grandstand entry. Tickets for children under 16 accompanied by an adult are completely free.
The 2023 Monaco E-Prix will take place over a full day. Free practice sessions, qualifying, race, on-track demonstration: experience non-stop action both on and off the track! Enjoy activities and the world of Formula E at the Allianz Fan Village.
How to book?
For any questions or enquiries, please contact us below : [email protected] / 00 377 93 15 26 24.
Don’t miss out on this fan first opportunity to get your seat and book your ticket in the grandstands for a full day of Motorsport and passion in the unique place of the Monaco Circuit.
The Organising Committee of the 91st Rally Monte-Carlo WRC has published the Supplementary Regulations for the event on Wednesday 16 November, at the same time as it officially opened the entry form.
The 2023 Season of the FIA World Rally Championship will start from the Principality of Monaco from Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd January and will be run on the roads of the hinterland with a challenging route between the Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence departments.
You can already find the Supplementary Regulations for the event in the Rallye Monte-Carlo 2023, Competitors’ Area > Official Documents, where all the entry and participation conditions are detailed.
Entries are open until Friday 16 December 2022. You can find the entry procedure in the following link “Entries 2023“.
