Upcoming Events
Menu
The 14th special stage of the 93rd Rallye Monte-Carlo, shortened by 5km as it was this morning for safety reasons, enabled Ott Tänak, the 2019 world champion, to add a third best time to his tally in 2025, his second in a row after SS13.
The Estonian, still 4th in the overall standings, pulled even closer to Elfyn Evans (Toyota), at 8.8 seconds, while Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) provisionally regained second place, 7 tenths ahead of the Welsh vice-world champion. So it’s a three-way battle for two places on the podium behind Sébastien Ogier (Toyota), who is still clinging on to his lead.
‘Ott (Tänak) made a different choice of tyres to us and that’s good for him. It allows him to get away from Kalle (Rovanperä), but it also means that he’s getting closer to me, so I’m going to have to start paying attention,’ commented Fourmaux. He now only has a lead of around ten seconds over his Hyundai team-mate, who has set three fastest times out of five since Saturday morning.
Tänak did better than Seb Ogier (2nd) and Thierry Neuville (3rd) on this stage. ‘It’s more of a gravel rally than an asphalt rally, it was so dirty! I’m happy to have finished this one,’ said Ogier, who now has a 24.4-second lead over Fourmaux.
As for the Belgian world champion, he hit something at km 2, at the very start of the stage: ‘I’m fighting hard, it’s very difficult to keep the car on the road. We’re continuing to fight, trying to improve things for tomorrow. It’s not easy at all. We had vibrations, I think the right rear rim must be damaged or something.’
Night falls very quickly on the Drôme in January, so that the last amateur competitors will have to set up headlamp ramps to negotiate SS15 before returning, at night, to the Service Park in Gap.
