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Australia

Monte Carlo victory a "great surprise", says Ogier

Sebastien Ogier says winning the Rally Monte Carlo with new team M-Sport was a "great surprise" considering the minimal amount of testing he had prior to the event.

Race winners Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, M-Sport

Race winners Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, M-Sport

M-Sport

Race winners Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, M-Sport
Race winners Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, M-Sport with Prince Albert II of Monaco, Jean Todt
Race winners Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, Ford Fiesta WRC, M-Sport
Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, Ford Fiesta WRC, M-Sport
Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, Ford Fiesta WRC, M-Sport
Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, Ford Fiesta WRC, M-Sport
Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, Ford Fiesta WRC, M-Sport
Sébastien Ogier, M-Sport
Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 WRC, Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 WRC, Hyundai Motorsport
Stéphane Lefebvre, Gabin Moreau, Citroën C3 WRC, Citroën World Rally Team
Stéphane Lefebvre, Gabin Moreau, Citroën C3 WRC, Citroën World Rally Team

Four-time champion Ogier made his M-Sport debut in last weekend's WRC curtain-raiser, only one month on from signing with the Cumbria-based team.

The Frenchman's rally started badly as he lost around 40 seconds in a ditch in SS3, but he quickly recovered to second in the following tests.

He had closed to within a minute of Hyundai's Thierry Neuville when the Belgian made a mistake on SS13, damaging his suspension and gifting the lead to Ogier.

"To be here is a great surprise and I am very happy for the whole team," Ogier, whose win marks M-Sport's first triumph as a private team.

"It was so many new things, but something is not new: we are here as winners of the Monte Carlo Rally – that’s something I never get bored with!

"We had one of the most difficult challenges, certainly for our generation of drivers, on this rally this year.

"And when you add on top of that, I joined M-Sport about a month ago and only had a couple of days in the car. When I came here I thought anything could happen – this is Monte, but I was missing some special preparation."

Tanak engine woes a late scare

Ogier's teammate Ott Tanak finished third despite his car developing engine problems on Sunday,  which the former Volkswagen driver said was cause for concern.

"We had quite a good gap [Sunday] morning and I was somehow confident," Ogier added. "But in the first race with the new car everybody has had some tension.

"In the first stage this morning we discovered Ott had a problem and we were scared it could happen to us. I was really hoping he could make it to the end, he was really deserving to be there.

"The last stage was difficult, the others were nice and I could enjoy the driving. But the last pass of [Col de] Turini was tricky – we started with the worst conditions and we knew there was no chance to fight for power stage points, so we decided to bring it home."

Too early to judge rivals

When asked whether his newly-built Ford Fiesta would be a consistent challenger throughout the year, Ogier said it was difficult to judge the performance of M-Sport's rival teams.

Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala proved the squad's closest challenger in second, Hyundai's best representative was Dani Sordo in fourth, while Citroen's Kris Meeke was another driver to crash out of points-scoring contention.

"It’s still a bit early to judge the performance of everyone, it’s very hard to see who’s making the big difference or to see any dominance from anybody," Ogier commented.

"This is a good sign for the championship. I hope at the end of the day we are all there with similar performance, that’s good for the sport, but I also hope we continue in this way [winning]."

The next round in the series will be Rally Sweden, where Ogier is a three-time winner, and the Frenchman is confident he can be competitive there as well.

"I love Sweden, it’s a rally I have won a couple of times and I look forward to it," he said.

"In the past, the Fiesta has always been strong in Sweden and there’s nothing I can see which won’t allow me to be confident for going to Sweden."

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Edition

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