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The leader at noon, after clocking three best times in the morning, Sébastien Ogier made two small mistakes in Stage 6 and lost half a minute in total, puncture included. This allowed his Welsh colleague of the Toyota Gazoo team, Elfyn Evans, to take the lead with a 20-second gap over Ott Tänak (Hyundai). This second pass between Aspremont and La Bâtie des Fonts (19,61 km) also allowed Hyundai to benefit from another bad stage for Kalle Rovanperä. The young Finn, after ending up in a field, was badly placed when he came back on the road, just before Tänak arrived and had to slow down. The 2019 World Champion lost a chance to clock the best time but is now 2nd of the rally, 20 seconds behind Evans and with a 3-second advantage on Ogier. His Hyundai colleague, Thierry Neuville, is back in the race as well, in 4th spot, after a tough morning, but he has over a minute deficit on Evans, and is only three seconds ahead of Rovanperä. Only one more stage left on the Friday menu…
Sébastien Ogier, who clocked the best time in Stage 7 to close the day in style, has been the quickest in 4 stages out of 5 on Friday. He had a puncture in Stage 6, after a spin in a hairpin, and lost half a minute in the process. However, the Frenchman and local hero is still in the chase for an 8th win in Monaco on Sunday. But he will have to cope with team-mate Elfyn Evans, the only driver able to resist Ogier on Friday, and the only other driver to clock a best time on this very wet day, in Stage 6. The last stage of the day allowed the 3rd Toyota driver, young Finn Kalle Rovanperä, to regroup and start afresh after losing the plot in the previous two stages. The other news this Friday relate to the Hyundai team, where World Champion 2019, Ott Tänak, is now 3rd overall, and only 25 seconds behind Evans, whereas Thierry Neuville, now 5th at less than one minute, is going to fight with Rovanperä for a potential podium spot, if any of the Big Three fails in the last 7 stages scheduled before Sunday, 4 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday.
A dedicated program will be set-up for watching safely from home the the 89th edition of the Monte-Carlo Rally.
On the French television, Canal+ channels will diffuse 5 special stages in live throughout the weekend, including 2 stages unencrypted (Saturday 23 at 12:00 & Sunday 24 at 12:00).
For following the rally in streaming, the Automobile Club de Monaco will broadcast online and on-live the Start of the Rallye from Gap (Thursday 21 at 13:00), “Meet the Crew” session (Thursday 21 at 16:30) and the Prize Giving Ceremony in Monaco (Sunday 24 at 16:00). All of them will be available on the ACM Facebook and Youtube Pages.
It will be also possible to follow the Prize-Giving Ceremony on Monaco.
All the rally will be coverage on WRC+.
For watching the rally from your country: https://www.wrc.com/en/more/tv-guide/
Game on for the 2021 season of the World Rally Championship (WRC) and the 110th anniversary of the Monte-Carlo Rally, behind closed doors! Fittingly enough, the best time in the first stage came from 2019 World Champion Ott Tänak (Hyundai), a good way for him to start forgetting about his huge crash last year, on Friday, at the beginning of the 2020 edition. Between Saint-Disdier and Corps, in the very heart of the Dévoluy mountains, Tänak took 12 minutes and 5 seconds to complete the 20.58km of Special Stage 01. He created a 3-second gap on the three top Toyota drivers, grouped in one second only: young star Kalle Rovanpera finished ahead of vice-champion Elfyn Evans and 7-time champion Sébastien Ogier. The last spot in the Top 5 of this first stage was taken by Belgian Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville. And the first big crash of this Monte eliminated Finnish M-Sport driver Teemu Suninen, whose Ford Fiesta rolled before falling on the side of the road, with no harm for the crew.
In order to fight the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, the Organizing Committee of the 89th Monte-Carlo Rally – in agreement with the FIA, the Promoter of the World Rally Championship (WRC) and all the local Authorities involved – has decided to allow no spectator whatsoever on and around the event. It will then be organized behind closed doors, as was the case in Turkey and Sardinia at the end of the previous season.
The sanitary rules of the departments involved will be respected, as well as the medical and sporting regulations, and strict control of the starting and finishing areas of the special stages will be enforced, as well as the service park and the regrouping areas. There will be no spectator area along the stages.
The schedule of the event have also been reorganized, in order to respect scrupulously the curfew in force. So after three days of recce, from Monday January 18 to Wednesday January 20, the 84 crews allowed to participate to the rally will start from Gap, where the kick-off of the 89th Monte-Carlo Rally will be given Thursday January 21 from 1:10 pm onwards at Fontreyne Service Park. The menu of this first day & night leg consists of two special stages for a total timed section of 41.36km in the departments of Hautes-Alpes and Isère: « Saint-Disdier / Corps » (SS1 – 20.58km – 2:08 pm) in the Dévoluy area, then « Saint-Maurice / Saint-Bonnet » (SS2 – 20.78km – 3:06 pm) in the Valgaudemar area, will serve as revealing previews of other difficulties to come in the next three days..
On Friday January 22, crews will be heading west of Gap for Race Day 2, spread over two departments (Hautes-Alpes and Drôme) for a total timed section of 104.70km. With a loop of three remote special stages to run twice in a row, this will certainly be the toughest day of the rally, on unchartered territory: three novel stages called « Aspremont / La Bâtie-des-Fonts » (SS3/6 – 19.61km – 6:10 am/12:17 pm), « Chalancon / Gumiane » (SS4/7 – 21.62km – 7:28 am/1:38 pm) and « Montauban-sur-l’Ouvèze / Villebois-les-Pins » (SS5/8 – 22.24km – 09:01 am/Cancelled), all of this amounting to a very demanding 2nd leg!
The next day, on Saturday January 23, crews will be heading east of Gap for Race Day 3 and a total timed section of 57.10km which promises to be just as tough as the previous days. It will all start with « La Bréole / Selonnet » (SS9 – 18.31km – 6:30 am) followed by a stage inaugurated last January, « Saint-Clément / Freissinières » (SS10 – 20.48km – 08:18 am). After one last break at Gap/Fontreyne Service Park, in the start of the afternoon, the last stage of the day will be again « La Bréole / Selonnet » (SS11 – 18.31km – 12:08 pm). All remaining crews will then head for the Principality of Monaco where they will be expected middle in the afternoon… without any service allowed !
The final leg of this 110th anniversary edition, on the morning of Sunday January 24, four special stages for a total of 54.48 km will be organized, for the first 50 classified, without service, in the hills of the North-West of the Alpes-Maritimes and the South-East of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence departments. This couple of loops will be a premiere for a WRC finale at Monte-Carlo Rally, but they will be set on stages well known by rally fans : two passes in each of the following stages : « Puget-Théniers / La Penne » (SS12/14 – 12.93km – 08:30 am / 10:45 am) followed by « Briançonnet / Entrevaux » (SS13/15 – 14.31km – 10:08 am / 12:18 pm) where the second pass will count as a Power Stage, with bonus points at the end…
Monaco, January 16, 2021
Download the Press Release of the Prefecture of Hautes-Alpes
Following the enhancement of sanitary measures on the whole of the French territory, including the extension of the curfew to all departments on its route, as well as potential difficulties linked to the closing of accommodation infrastructures, the Organizing Committee has decided to cancel the 24th edition of the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique, which was scheduled to start from Monaco on January 30, 2021.
« We have special thoughts tonight for all our friends, be them competitors, marshals, volunteers, partners or elected persons, who are impacted by this cancellation », says Christian Tornatore, the General Commissioner of Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM). «However, we really had no other choice available », he added, « since the current situation does not allow to organize this regularity competition in its usual friendly and festive spirit. Since the DNA of the race is not guaranteed any more, it would be unreasonable to organize it without answering the usual expectations of the competitors … »
The Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) sincerely regrets this decision which slowly became inevitable, despite all our efforts and the efforts of our partners, due to current sanitary rules.
Monaco, January 14, 2021
Following the enhancement of sanitary measures on the whole of the French territory, including the extension of the curfew to all departments on its route, as well as potential difficulties linked to the closing of accommodation infrastructures, the Organizing Committee has decided to cancel the 5th edition of the Rallye Monte-Carlo Classique.
« We have special thoughts tonight for all our friends, be them competitors, marshals, volunteers, partners or elected persons, who are impacted by this cancellation », says Christian Tornatore, the General Commissioner of Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM). «However, we really had no other choice available », he added, « since the current situation does not allow to organize this regularity competition in its usual friendly and festive spirit. Since the DNA of the race is not guaranteed any more, it would be unreasonable to organize it without answering the usual expectations of the competitors … »
The Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) sincerely regrets this decision which slowly became inevitable, despite all our efforts and the efforts of our partners, due to current sanitary rules.
Monaco, January 14, 2021
The 89th Monte-Carlo Rally will start on Thursday, January 21st from Gap, with 84 cars entered.
