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The Ardéchois Sunday kept all its promises with its gastronomic menu of 4 Regularity Specials, including the famous Burzet and Saint Bonnet le Froid.
At the end of the day there were 4 winners and 4 different brands that shone at the top of the time sheets:
• In the SR5: La Croze / Saint-Andéol-de-Vals (41,03km) : Keller Ermanno / Verini Maurizio impose their Audi Quattro.
• In the SR6: Burzet / Saint-Martial (30,49Km), it is the Gapençais Durand Raymond / Cholesterols Sébastien on Opel Kadett GTE who take the first step of the podium.
• In the loop Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid / Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid (26,88km) of the SR7, the Renault crew Prevot Florent / Prevot Gregory on Renault 17 TS makes the brand shine!
• Last race of the day, the SR8: Lalouvesc / Labatie-Labatie-d’Andaure (18,59Km), the Monegasque crew Sbaratto Jean-Philippe / Verda Nicolas on Volkswagen Golf GTI concludes the day by illustrating itself.
In the evening of this day, at the end of the stage of classification Valence – Valence, the podium is the following one:
1st Aiolfi Maurizio / Merenda Carlo on Lancia Beta 1800
2nd Cornet de Ways Ruart Antoine / Cornet de Ways Ruart Philippe on Porsche 911
3rd Ochagavias Alvaro / Macho Gomez Manuel on Porsche 911.
With 4 new SRs, tomorrow looks like being another difficult day between the weather conditions and the level of fatigue that will not fail to increase, nothing will be played … until Monaco!
The 250 crews still in the run for the 24th Monte Carlo Historic Rally took the start of the RS1, in the iconic Col de Bleine. The first competitor started at 7.50 a.m. 
The inaugural 15.39km stage took place in a spring sunshine but with temperatures of almost -10 degrees, which did not dampen the spirits of the passionate spectators who had come in large numbers to enjoy the royal line-up for this edition. The first day of racing promises to be busy with 4 RS on the menu, bringing the competitors to Valencia from 4:50 pm. 
After the CH of Buis les Baronnies where the spectators had once again responded present, the crews followed for the SR3 Eygalayes – Montauban sur l’Ouvèze. 30km long, this penultimate event of the day had a sequence of 2 passes, Saint -Jean and Perty via the Dromoise capital of the Rally, Laborel.
Some of the competitors had put on the studded tyres but the almost 15 degrees of this afternoon Dromois had been right of the last traces of ice.
The CH of Crest signs the (almost) end of a hard and long day with 4 SR. This 4th timed section, Sainte Jalle – Rémuzat, passed by the Soubeyrand pass, also free of snow but with a breathtaking view. Only 30 small kilometers remained to join Valence and its famous Champ de Mars, from 16h50 for the first car…
This 24th edition of the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique has been launched this Thursday. A total of 256 competitors have officially set off yesterday from three cities whose names resonate in the history of the Monte Carlo: Bad-Homburg, Milan and Reims.
Before to arrive in the Principality of Monaco today from 13:40, the competitors had to face the long journey of the concentration course, in winter conditions. Let’s take a look back on this first day in pictures and figures.
In the early afternoon, the 26 competitors set off from the town of Bad-Homburg, located at the gates of the large Frankfurt am Main. During this concentration stage, 2 time controls (Langres / Saint-André-les-Alpes) and 3 passage controls (Dole / Lons-le-Saunier / Monestier-de-Clermont) will be on the program of the crews in this long way that will bring them to the Principality of Monaco this Friday evening, which means in numbers a total of 1154 km to digest.
110 crews took the start in the early evening from Italy in the city of Milan. The Departure start was given on Corso Venezia, in front of the buildings of the Automobile Club of Milan (ACI).
A first Passage Control for them in Piemont in Pinerolo, then they headed to Gap for a Time Control (from 6.30am) and Saint-André-les-Alpes (from 10.40am). They will be the first to arrive in the Port of Monaco in the early afternoon. In total, this will represent 664km to cover.
It was in the “City of French Kings” that 120 competitors took the start on this Thursday evening. Despite the cold weather and a light drizzle, the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique was as popular as ever.
The 954km route through the vineyards of the Champagne region started with three Time Controls (Épernay, Vitry-le-François, Bar-sur-Aube). They will then head for Aube and Haute-Marne with a crossing of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises and Chaumont before reaching Langres for a first-time control from 00:35.
Then 3 new controls to be crossed (Dole / Lons-le-Saunier / Monestier-de-Clermont) to reach Saint-André-les-Alpes (from 12:46) and Monaco (from 15:46).
Copyrights: Jean-Marie Biadatti / Automobil Club von Deutschland / Giorgio Stirano / Jean-Marc Haible
There is only a 20-second gap, all round, between Seb Ogier and Seb Loeb before the final three stages of the 90th Rallye Monte-Carlo, because the older of the two set another best time to start his Sunday morning. It was on SS14, between La Penne and Collongues (19 km), on a completely dry road, with only a few patches of frost which did not bother so much the two multiple world champions.
“I attacked, anyway,” said Loeb after passing the timing panel, while slowing down his Ford Puma Hybrid. “Yes, definitely!” replied Isabelle Galmiche, smiling from ear to ear. She has been living a dream in the right-hand seat since Thursday evening, and it continues. It’s the French crew’s 5th stage win in this rally (equal with Ogier), and the 930th for the Alsatian grandmaster since his WRC debut in 2001. A record that may never be beaten.
“It was a great stage, but I didn’t take any risk,” admitted Ogier to explain the 1.1 second lost on Loeb. It was unimportant, just one more special stage win for glory, the dominant theme of this historic 90th edition, historic also because these two WRC legends are posted 1st and 2nd before the final sprint. This has not happened since Rally Sweden in 2013.
After SS14, Oliver Solberg threw in the towel at the Briançonnet regroup. A decision taken by his team manager because the young Swede wanted to stop breathing fumes in his cockpit, which made him dizzy and prevented him from focusing on his driving. Two down for Hyundai, because Ott Tänak did not leave the service park on Sunday morning, after his two punctures and retirement on Saturday.
The only survivor among the Koreans is therefore Thierry Neuville, the only priority driver who left this morning with two super-softs, in order to take points in the Power Stage, as Gus Greensmith (5th), in his Ford Puma, is still 1 minute and 11 seconds ahead of him. As for the leading quartet, it is still made up of Ogier, Loeb, Craig Breen (Ford Puma) and Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota). In WRC2, Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda Fabia) seems to be heading for another success.
Finally a stage win for Thierry Neuville, in his Hyundai, after three days of rallying full of various problems. The winner of the 2020 edition therefore brings the South Korean team the first ever stage win of the new i20 Hybrid, in the first run between Briançonnet and Entrevaux (SS15, 14 km). A good omen before the Power Stage (SS17) which will close this 90th edition of the Monte-Carlo Rally, where the Belgian will aim for bonus points for the world championship.
Neuville edged Sébastien Ogier (Toyota Yaris) by 1.9 seconds, Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota Yaris) by 3.6 seconds, Craig Breen (Ford Puma) by 5.8 seconds and Sébastien Loeb (Ford Puma) by 6.5 seconds. “It was slipping quite a bit on the descent, I preferred to be careful,” said the 9-time world champion, who did not want to spoil this superb rally by making a mistake this morning. In front, nothing changes, with Ogier still ahead of Loeb, but more than 24 seconds away now, Breen a minute and a half back, ahead of Rovanperä, and Greensmith ahead of Neuville. Two Toyotas and three Fords in the Top 5, followed by the Belgian’s Hyundai.
Sébastien Ogier, who was leading the 90th Rallye Monte-Carlo with a 24-second gap over Sébastien Loeb, and only two stages to go, arrived on the rim of his front left wheel at the end of SS16, the penultimate of this rally, the second run between La Penne and Collongues. Because of this puncture, the Toyota driver lost 34.1 seconds and his place of leader, recovered right away by the Alsatian in a Ford Puma, who came out of his WRC retirement (last rally: Turkey in September 2020) to celebrate this 90th edition in style.
There are only 14 km left to cover, in the SS17, with two passes on the menu, Col du Buis and Col de Félines, before a majestic but tricky descent, and several hairpins in the process of heating up, thanks to the glorious sun of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, towards the medieval town of Entrevaux. A final twist could not be ruled out, however, in this already extraordinary rally, but with a gap of 9.5 seconds ahead of Ogier-Veillas tandem, the brand new Loeb-Galmiche crew, for their first ever joint-venture in a Ford Puma Hybrid, is not far from a masterstroke…
The greatest rally driver of all time, if we only look at the prize list and statistics, won the 90th edition of the Monte-Carlo Rally on Sunday, beating by 10 seconds and 5 tenths only, after 17 special stages over 4 days, his arch-rival Sébastien Ogier. His 80th win in WRC, and the 8th triumph in Monaco, where he first competed in 2021, in a small red Citroën Saxo.
Ogier was twice hit by bad luck in the last two stages: first a puncture of his front left tire, in SS16, and then a ten-second penalty for a jump start in SS17, due to a small technical glitch which forced him to release the clutch a little too early.
Loeb did not know he had won when he got out of his Ford Puma at the end of SS17, in the medieval town of Entrevaux, after four days of a fierce and intense fight between the two greatest champions of the modern era of rallying: 9 world titles for Loeb, 8 for Ogier, both having decided to slow down a bit, to start other projects. For Loeb, it was 10 years ago (last full season in 2012) and for Ogier only last month (8th world title in December 2021 at the Monza rally) .
“It’s unbelievable. We didn’t expect so much when we got here,” said Loeb after the podium in Entrevaux. “We were unlucky, but that’s rallying”, Ogier said. He was still leading by 24 seconds at the start of SS16, the one in which he punctured his front-left tire, finishing on the rim and losing 34 seconds in the process. Each had started this rally in a new car of the hybrid era, and with a new teammate, Benjamin Veillas for Ogier, Isabelle Galmiche for Loeb.
This is Loeb’s 80th victory in the WRC, including 79 with Daniel Elena and one with Isabelle Galmiche, a maths teacher who made the most of her weekend in a Ford Puma. She navigated perfectly a very demanding driver, and she was rewarded by climbing on a podium for history, alongside Loeb, Ogier, Veillas and another crew, fully Irish, entered by Ford M-Sport, consisting of Craig Breen and Paul Nagle.
This stunning win is also one for Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport Ford team, which had almost skipped the 2021 season to better prepare for the arrival of the new technical regulations, in order to fine-tune the settings of this Ford Puma Hybrid. It was objectively the best car of this 1st round of 2022, at the very beginning of the hybrid era in WRC. This car designed in Banbury UK was at the same time the fastest, the most reliable and the easiest to drive, according to all its drivers this week, starting with Loeb and Breen, and adding young Gus Greensmith, 25, who posted his first stage win in WRC, on Friday.
“We have just finished a rally, so we need to celebrate before we decide if there will be others…”, Loeb also said. At almost 48, next February, he has just set a new record: that of the winner on older in fifty seasons of World Rally, a little better than Swede legend Bjorn Waldegard at the Safari in 1990, then aged 46. “For me, it won’t be right away,” Ogier smiled, as he wants to start a new career in endurance, on circuits of this world. “But we will try to set up a date with Seb”, he added, delighted to have experienced “such a great fight since Thursday”, on the roads of Monte-Carlo. Both Sebs are now on equal terms in the Principality: 8 wins each, including Ogier’s win during the IRC era, in 2009, in a Peugeot.
See you gentlemen in 2023 to settle the score, one more time!
