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!

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.