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.

Sébastien Loeb took a short break in his current domination of the 90th Monte-Carlo Rally: after four best times in the first four stages of the day, he found himself deprived of additional electric power in his Ford Puma Hybrid. So that his young teammate Gus Greensmith (25) took the opportunity to open his record in the WRC, posting the first best time of his career.

“I’m going to text him so that he leaves this one to me”, Greensmith joked when Loeb was already well underway in this SS7, the second run of the day between Guillaumes and Valberg, heading up to the ski resort on a wide and fast road. Then the Frenchman fell “out of hybrid”, which had happened a little earlier to Greensmith and denied the Ford of a hundred horsepower.

On such a fast, uphill special, it was a slight handicap, but that did not prevent Loeb from maintaining control of the general standings, 14.4 seconds ahead of Sébastien Ogier (Toyota), now again 2nd, and 15.2 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans, the vice-world champion in the other official Yaris aiming for a podium position on Sunday.

Thanks to this nice performance, Greensmith, still 7th, got even closer (less than a second) to Ott Tänak, the 2019 world champion, and he also has in sight Thierry Neuville, 4th, and Craig Breen 5th, just ahead of Tänak. The last stage of the day is scheduled between Val-de-Chalvagne and Entrevaux (SS8), over 17 km dominated Friday morning by Loeb. This 90th Rallye Monte-Carlo keeps all its promises, and we are not yet halfway there…

Formula E and the FIA have today published the provisional calendar for the 2021/2022 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, following the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

Three new locations are featuring as part of a record 16-race season spanning 13 cities across five continents.

Formula E also confirmed the presence to the calendar of the Monaco E-Prix. The race in the Principality is moving from a biannual to an annual event following May’s hugely successful E-Prix.

Cap Town (South Africa), Vancouver (Canada) and Seoul (South Korea) join the host cities family of electric races.

* Subject to track homologation

Defending Porsche Supercup champion Larry ten Voorde left it to no other driver to open, in style, the 2021 edition of this very spectacular series, this morning in the streets of the Principality. Starting from pole position, the Dutchman won without knowing the slightest concern, ahead of New Zealander Jaxon Evans, a talented member of the Porsche Junior Team, and Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci, an ex-Formula 2 driver, who completed the podium of his very first Supercup race.

This race was interrupted a few seconds after the start by a red flag following a big pile-up between Sainte-Dévote and the Casino, which forced the marshals of the ACM to do, once again, a big job of evacuation of the most damaged car, then sweeping debris on the track, while adding special sawdust to the traces of oil. After a handful of minutes, the race started again and the logic of qualifying on Friday morning was respected, until the end, with the top 3 qualifyers on the podium and three French drivers in the Top 10: Boccolacci, Florian Latorre (5th) and Steven Palette (10th).

There will be 8 Supercup rounds again this year, still raising the curtain on F1, and still in Europe. The Porsche Supercup was created in 1993 and was then ruled by Jost Capito, who went on to rally, as Ford’s big boss in the WRC, and who is now the new Williams F1 Team Principal.

Zane Maloney, a native of Barbados, won Race 2 of the Regional Formula by Alpine at noon on Sunday, starting in pole position and leading from start to finish a race interrupted several times by red or yellow flags. The first major incident was a pile-up a few seconds after the start, at the beginning of Lap 1, when all 28 cars went up towards the Casino. The red flags came out and all drivers went back to the pits. Maloney, whose model in life is Lewis Hamilton, of Grenada’s origins, another island in the Caribbean, was the British F4 champion in 2019 and is the next British motor racing hopeful, just like Lando Norris and George Russell before him.

Maloney finished ahead of a couple of French drivers: Isack Hadjar, 16, a member of the FFSA Academy and winner of Race 1 on Saturday, who put pressure on him throughout the race and finished only half a second behind him, with best lap as a bonus; and Hadrien David, who perfectly managed his start on the second row of the grid and contained the assaults of Paul Aron until the Estonian, 2nd of the series before Monaco and closely followed by Mercedes, hit the barriers at Sainte-Dévote and had to retire.

Liam Lawson (Hitech GP) has been disqualified four hours after winning Race 2 on the Formula 2 schedule, early Saturday morning, and Briton Dan Ticktum (Carlin) has been declared the winner, ahead of Australian Oscar Piastri (Prema), Estonia’s Juri Vips (Hitech GP) and Frenchman Théo Pourchaire (ART GP) who will start from pole position at the end of the afternoon (5.15pm) for Race 3.

« A defined throttle pedal progressivity map programmed in position 1 of the steering wheel throttle map rotary knob must be used during all formation lap starts and race starts until the car speed reaches 50 km/h. Car 07 used a different throttle map at the race start » : this is the official explanation given by the Race Direction after examining all the data of Lawson’s car.

Ticktum is the most experienced of the F2 drivers, entered in his 4th F2 season. He never managed to pass Lawson but finished ahead of Piastri who then managed to resist the assaults of Vips until the end of the race. Pourchaire had not even tried to resist Vips, preferring instead to continue accumulating experience in preparation for the Main Race, late Saturday afternoon.

China’s Guanyu Zhou (Uni-Virtuosi), the leader of the championship when arriving in Monaco, made history by winning Race 1 on Friday. He therefore started 10th (inverted grid) equipped with rain tyres, just like all of his comrades, because the track was wet. He then made a daring bet by switching on super-soft tires shortly before half-race, on a track which was gradually drying out. But a failed bet, so he returned to the pit to put on some wet tires again and then wisely decided to give up, with no hope of taking any points.

Race 3 is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, at 5:15 pm, for 40 laps. A Frenchman will start on pole position, Théo Pourchaire, and he will do everything he can to succeed the late Anthoine Hubert on the winners list.

Young Frenchman Isack Hadjar, aged 16 only, won Race 1 of the Formula Regional by Alpine on Saturday, starting from pole position and leading from start to finish in front of his teammate at R-Ace Racing, Zane Maloney, from Barbados, who finished seven seconds back despite a last safety car having nullified the efforts of Hadjar to take cover.

It was a total demonstration for the young Parisian who went through karting then followed the courses of the famous Winfield driving school (winner of the Winfield Trophy 2019) and finished 3rd last year in the French Formula 4 Championship. He never doubted, he made no mistake, so he deservedly stepped on the podium of the princely lodge to be presented with a superb trophy from the hands of Michel Ferry, the vice-president in charge of Sport for Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM).

Behind Hadjar and Maloney, who aspires to succeed one day Lewis Hamilton, from the Grenada island next to Barbados, a nice duel pitted Estonian Paul Aron, currently 2nd in the championship and closely followed by Mercedes, against another Frenchman supported by Alpine, Hadrien David, who had set the best time in free practice Thursday morning.

David tried everything but Aron didn’t give up and deserved his podium. Young Spaniard Mari Boya started 9th and finished 9th scoring a couple of points, ahead of 18 boys. She will be 5th on the grid on Sunday morning for Race 2 and aiming at a podium which would be historic in the Principality. Last but not least, the leader of the championship before Monaco, Switzerland’s Grégoire Saucy, had an anonymous race. He was stuck in 10th place when he went straight at Sainte-Dévote, which ended his hopes of scoring a consolation point behind Mari Boya. He will have a second opportunity to shine on Sunday morning.

Frenchman Théo Pourchaire (ART GP), starting on pole position, won Race 3 of the Formula 2 schedule, the Feature Race (42 laps) without a hitch, becoming the youngest winner in the history of Formula 2 (ex-GP2) while succeeding on the prize list to another Frenchman, Anthoine Hubert, the winner in 2019 and then tragically killed in an accident at Spa-Francorchamps.

Pourchaire, who debuts in F2 this year, had well prepared his case by finishing 7th in Race 1 on Friday, then 4th in Race 2 this Saturday morning. He made no mistake whatsoever and waited until Lap 30 to change tires, at a time when his lead was enough for his team not to panic and do whatever it took, in order, without losing any time.

This was not the case with the Prema team of his main rival, Russian Robert Shwartzman, who missed this crucial and obligatory tire change when the driver, for most of the race, had put intense pressure. on Pourchaire, staying one or two seconds behind him, at the mercy of a potential mistake that never happened.

Because of the failure of his team, the Russian had to settle for 4th place, behind Pourchaire, Australian Oscar Piastri (Prema) who finished three seconds behind the French ART GP driver, for his second podium in two days, just like Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (Uni-Virtuosi) who finished 14 seconds back. Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Uni-Virtuosi) is still leading the series thanks to his win in the Sprint Race on Friday. He waited until the last moment to change his tires and finished 5^th. He now leads the title chase ahead of Piastri and Pourchaire: the French rookie is now 3rd and an obvious title candidate, in only his first Formula 2 season.

It was a perfect day for the French and Monegasque colors: pole position for Charles Leclerc in F1 and two Marseillaises for Pourchaire in F2 and Isack Hadjar in Formula Alpine. Roll on Sunday for the last day of this already historic weekend, from all points of view …

There will be three more occasions to celebrate, on Sunday, in the streets of the Principality: the 78th Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, with a Monegasque driver in pole position for the first time since Louis Chiron in 1936, long before the World Championship was created in 1950. Charles Leclerc, the local hero, will start at 3 pm for 78 laps with Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) next to him.

Two other races are planned, as curtain-raisers in the morning: the first round of the 2021 season in the glamourous Porsche Supercup (10:30 am, 17 laps), with Dorian Boccolacci on the second row, and Race 2 of Formula Regional by Alpine (12:00 pm, 30 minutes), with three French drivers in the race including Isack Hadjar, who won Race 1 on Saturday, and two very fast young girls, Spaniard Mari Boya and Swiss Lena Bühler.

It will surely be another day to remember for motor racing fans in Monaco.