The Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid loop lived up to all its promises on Sunday afternoon, with thousands of rally fans gathered in and around the famous Haute-Loire village. All were able to enjoy the show and the result of RS7: a Porsche ahead of the title holders’ Lancia Fulvia and two Citroëns, a SM and a DS!

German vs Italian manufacturers, this is the story building in the regularity stages of this 26^th Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique: Lancia and Alfa Romeo had opened the ball, but Opel, on Saturday, and BMW, on Sunday morning, replied, imitated by Porsche in RS7. Thanks to the 924 of Germans Jörg Pohlemann and Marc Stoll, who did better than the Lancia Fulvia 1.3 S of Claudio Enz and Cristina Seeberger, last year’s winning Swiss pair.

Five crews tied for 3rd place in this RS7, including two in Citroëns: Antoine Raymond and Gilles Olivier, who had surprised everybody on Sunday morning by winning RS5 in their venerable Maserati-powered red SM, number 63; and Damien Ancellin and Paul-Emmanuel Bidault in a beautiful blue DS23, number 35 (see photo below).

All that remained was one regularity stage, RS8, before returning to Valence for a well-deserved night’s rest. The rally’s youngest crew, Jules Picoreau and Camille Béal, both 23, were still well inside the Top 5 in their Alfa Romeo GTV, number 7.