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The 11th special stage of the 93rd Rallye Monte-Carlo, shortened by 5km for safety reasons, enabled Hyundai to score a double success: Ott Tänak, the 2019 world champion, clocked his first stage win of the rally, and of 2025, while Adrien Fourmaux took 2nd place overall, which he had been chasing since yesterday, from Elfyn Evans (Toyota). As for Sébastien Ogier (Toyota), who was not at ease on this stage between Aucelon and Recoubeau-Jansac (15.48 km instead of 20.85 km), he lost a few seconds but maintained his lead.
‘I’m feeling better, it was a comfortable stage,’ soberly summed up Tänak, the 6th stage winner of this rally after Sébastien Ogier (4 best times), Elfyn Evans (2), Kalle Rovanperä, Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster this morning. ‘I didn’t like this stage at all, it was a nightmare for me: too narrow, too slow, very polluted. It didn’t work for me,’ said Kalle Rovanperä, the two-time Toyota world champion, who finished 7th, 14 seconds behind Tänak, over 15km. That’s one second more than his Estonian rival for every kilometre covered.
‘It was very, very dirty, so we drove safely, without taking too many risks. Fortunately, the dangerous part of the stage had been removed,’ said Ogier of this slightly different stage, the second of the loop in the Drôme. ‘It resembled Critérium de Cévennes,’ added Alexandre Coria, Fourmaux’s co-driver. The two Frenchmen from Hyundai are now in a position to threaten Ogier, as they are now 2nd in the overall standings, just 12.3 seconds behind the nine-time winner of the most legendary event in the WRC Championship.
However, nothing is over yet, as Evans is only half a second behind Fourmaux, and Tänak and Rovanperä are just behind, without having given up yet. They have never won the Monte Carlo Rally but they have a lot of talent and there are still four stages to be contested today, plus three tomorrow morning on the way back to Monaco. For Neuville, the reigning world champion, the aim now is to ‘learn the new tires and take big points on Sunday morning’, thanks to the updated WRC’s points system. But that’s another story…
