The red Sunbeam Tiger had already been very efficient on Saturday afternoon in RS3 of the 26^th Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. Twenty-four hours later, this beautiful 1964 Coupé is the first car to win two regularity stages in this 2024 edition, thanks to the obvious talent of its Belgian crew, Maxime Castelein and Filip Deplancke.

This RS8 took place in the Haute-Loire department, as did the loop around Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid (SR7) earlier in the afternoon. And the Castelein-Deplancke duo, between Lalouvesc and Labatie d’Andaure (22.9km), did better than two very different cars: the imposing red Citroën SM of Antoine Raymond and Gilles Olivier, once again at the front, and the Austin Mini Cooper S of Italians Giorgio Schon and Francesco Gianmarino.

At the top of the timesheets for this RS8, the last of Sunday’s four SRs on the menu, was the number 7 Alfa Romeo GTV of Picoreau-Béal, tied for 4^th place with a Porsche and, more importantly, the Opel Ascona of Michel Decremer and Jennifer Hugo. The Belgians’Opel, ahead of the Italians’Mini and the Alfa GTV of the two young Frenchmen, this is the leading trio of the rally on Sunday evening, the very provisional podium. There is still plenty to play for, as 9 stages remain on the schedule until Tuesday evening…