Due to the difficult weather conditions and the risk of flooding on Friday morning, two regularity stages (RS) were cancelled by the Race Direction of the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM). This left two on the programme for Day 3 of the 7th E-Rallye Monte-Carlo, and as soon as SR9 started (La Penne-Sigale, 13.098 km) the Belgian VW Club was back in the spotlight: a second win for Bernard Heine and Valérie Piette (VW ID3), after their initial win in SR2 on Wednesday. That also makes 3 wins from 7 SRs contested for Volkswagen in this 2023 edition.

As is often the case in this fierce rally, two crews shared 2nd place honours: the Tesla Model 3 in the SMEG colours, driven by Romain Haut-Labourdette with invaluable help from Yan Spano (see Thursday’s e-Briefs), on a par with Nadia Delvaux and Jean-Marc Piret (Peugeot E-208, number 53), who still sit in the Top 5 overall. The Franco-Belgian duo narrowly edged out Czechs Michal Zdarsky and Jakub Nabelek (Hyundai Kona), leaders of the Bridgestone ecoRally Cup 2023, by 10 penalty points. Whereas 2017 winners Didier Malga and Anne-Valérie Bonnel (Tesla Model 3) jumped in the overall lead, taking it away from Eneko Conde (Kia E-Niro). But not for long…

Download the classification of the RS9