WRC Monte Carlo: Dominant Ogier scores record ninth victory

Ogier and new co-driver Vincent Landais clinched nine of the 18 stages in what proved to be an unusually dry WRC season opener to claim a comfortable win by 18.8s from world champions Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen.

Competing in only a partial campaign, Ogier once again outlined his supreme knowledge of the twisty Monte Carlo roads, and was never headed throughout the four days of competition.

After winning the first five stages, Ogier established a relatively comfortable lead initially over Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans, who appeared to be the only driver able to compete with the Frenchman.

Ogier’s streak of stage wins was completed despite losing hybrid boost for two stages on Friday morning, and after a late gearbox change due to a clutch issue.

Once Evans suffered a right rear puncture in Stage 5, Ogier was gifted a lead he would extend to 36.0s before Rovanpera found his rhythm and began to whittle the advantage down.

Rovanpera managed to score four stage stage wins across Friday and Saturday to slash the deficit to 16.0s heading into Sunday’s stages, but he was unable to halt Ogier and settled for second. The Finn did however snatch the full points on the final powerstage.

The victory means Ogier has now pulled one clear of nine-time world champion Sebastian Loeb in their private battle for most Monte Carlo wins. The triumph is the first WRC victory for co-driver Landais.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville claimed the final spot on the podium, 44.6s adrift of Ogier as the South Korean marque struggled to contend with the dominant Toyota team. Toyota’s upgraded GR Yaris claimed 16 of the 18 stages, with Hyundai only breaking the drought on Saturday’s Stage 12 courtesy of Neuville, who snatched two stage victories to cement third.

The Belgian’s rally began with a lucky escape on Stage 2 when he skated into a bank after being caught out by black ice. Neuville inherited third after Evans’ puncture but he couldn’t close in on the leading Toyotas. This was largely due to a set up direction taken by the team that had expected more wintry conditions prior to the event.

Having shown arguably the best pace outside of Ogier, Evans was unable to recover the 40s lost to the puncture on Friday and finished fourth. The Welshman did boost his points tally by finishing third on the powerstage.

Ott Tanak’s first outing in the M-Sport Ford Puma resulted in the Estonian finishing fifth overall. The 2019 world champion did run as high as third after Thursday’s opening stages, but then struggled to acclimatise to the Puma’s characteristics. An intermittent power steering issue on Saturday then dropped him from fourth to fifth.

Tanak made progress in extracting speed from the car to deliver an extra four points from the powerstage after being pipped to the stage win by Rovanpera by 0.6s.

It ultimately proved to be a challenging weekend for M-Sport’s sister manufacturer entry driven by Pierre-Louis Loubet. The Frenchman was holding eighth before an off on Stage 5 which severely damaged his power steering, and without a midday service, he had to continue for three stages without steering assistance.

Loubet returned on Sunday but a water leak followed by a lack of fuel ultimately forced him out of the event.

A solid run from Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta netted the Japanese driver sixth but it wasn’t without drama on the final powerstage. A suspected rear suspension failure created late drama, but he was able to haul the GR Yaris home ahead Hyundai duo Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi.

The Hyundai pair struggled to find the set up sweet spot aboard their i20 Ns. Sordo suffered from persistent hybrid problems, while Lappi struggled to adapt to the new car, and was hit by a puncture on Saturday.

The WRC2 honours were claimed by Skoda driver Nikolay Gryazin, who edged Citroen’s Yohan Rossel by 4.5s.

UPDATE: Rossel has been awarded the WRC2 victory after a protest made against Gryazin was upheld by FIA stewards following a hearing.

Officials have imposed a five second penalty to Gryazin after he was found to have breached Article 19.2 of the 2023 FIA WRC Sporting Regulations during Stage 14. During the test Gryazin cut a corner at the 13.2km mark.

Gryazin had suffered a front right puncture prior to cutting the corner. As a result of the penalty, Rossel has been declared the winner with Gryazin demoted to second, 0.5s behind the Citroen driver.

Monte Carlo results:

Cla	Driver/Codriver	Car	Class	Total Time	Gap
1	Sébastien Ogier Vincent Landais	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	RC1	3:12'02.0
2	Kalle Rovanperä Jonne Halttunen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	RC1	3:12'20.8	18.8
3	Thierry Neuville Martijn Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	RC1	3:12'46.6	44.6
4	Elfyn Evans Scott Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	RC1	3:13'14.4	1'12.4
5	Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja	Ford Puma Rally1	RC1	3:14'36.9	2'34.9
6	Takamoto Katsuta Aaron Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	RC1	3:15'34.6	3'32.6
7	Dani Sordo Candido Carrera	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	RC1	3:15'49.5	3'47.5
8	Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	RC1	3:15'53.3	3'51.3
9	Nikolay Gryazin Konstantin Aleksandrov	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	RC2	3:22'05.4	10'03.4
10	Yohan Rossel Arnaud Dunand	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2	3:22'09.9	10'07.9
11	Pepe Lopez Borja Rozada	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	RC2	3:23'16.1	11'14.1
12	Erik Cais Petr Těšínský	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	RC2	3:23'35.8	11'33.8
13	Adrien Fourmaux Alexandre Coria	Ford Fiesta Rally2	RC2	3:24'01.8	11'59.8
14	Oliver Solberg Elliott Edmondson	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	RC2	3:24'20.6	12'18.6
15	Chris Ingram Craig Drew	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:25'12.1	13'10.1
16	Marco Bulacia Axel Coronado	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	RC2	3:26'50.4	14'48.4
17	Ricardo Romagnoli Louis Louka	Ford Fiesta Rally2	RC2	3:26'54.9	14'52.9
18	Stéphane Lefebvre Andy Malfoy	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2	3:27'45.9	15'43.9
19	François Delecour Sabrina de Castelli	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	RC2	3:28'12.6	16'10.6
20	Alejandro Cachón Alejandro López Fernández	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2	3:28'50.8	16'48.8
21	Matteo Gamba Nicolò Gonella	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:31'59.2	19'57.2
22	Mauro Miele Luca Beltrame	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	RC2	3:32'46.6	20'44.6
23	Bruno Riberi Florian Haut-Labourdette	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:35'43.4	23'41.4
24	Jourdan Serderidis Frédéric Miclotte	Ford Puma Rally1	RC1	3:38'52.2	26'50.2
25	Christian Merli Marco Zortea	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:39'02.7	27'00.7
26	Alessandro Gino Daniele Michi	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2	3:40'04.0	28'02.0
27	Johannes Keferbock Ilka Minor	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:40'24.0	28'22.0
28	Philippe Baffoun Charlyne Quartini	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2	3:41'50.0	29'48.0
29	Luc Pistachi Laëtitia Authier	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:42'42.1	30'40.1
30	Loïc Panagiotis Caroline Goddi	Alpine A110 Rally RGT	RGT	3:44'32.0	32'30.0
31	Romain Haut-Labourdette Fabien Tardito	Škoda Fabia R5	RC2	3:45'28.4	33'26.4
32	Mickaël Prévalet Jofrey Courtet	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	3:46'11.2	34'09.2
33	Lorenzo Bontempelli Giovanni Pina	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:47'24.3	35'22.3
34	Jean-Charles Albertini Patrick Chiappe	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:48'35.8	36'33.8
35	Simone Niboli Battista Brunetti	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:49'02.6	37'00.6
36	Ghjuvanni Rossi Maxime Martini	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	3:49'53.8	37'51.8
37	Zoltán László Gabor Zsiros	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:50'13.6	38'11.6
38	David Ferraro Michel Corneglio	Alpine A110 Rally RGT	RGT	3:52'03.7	40'01.7
39	Eric Royere Gilbert Dini	Alpine A110 Rally RGT	RGT	3:52'03.7	40'01.7
40	Yanis Desangles Nicolas Theron	Škoda Fabia R5	RC2	3:53'17.6	41'15.6
41	Silvano Patera Stefano Tiraboschi	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	3:54'19.8	42'17.8
42	Massimiliano Pedala Denis Piceno	Opel Corsa Rally4	RC4	3:55'24.2	43'22.2
43	Wolfgang Irlacher Elke Irlacher	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	3:55'32.2	43'30.2
44	Matteo Fontana Alessandro Arnaboldi	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	3:55'44.3	43'42.3
45	William Creighton Liam Regan	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	RC2	3:57'18.0	45'16.0
46	Nicolas Ressegaire Marina Micheli	Renault Clio Rally5	RC5	4:00'14.8	48'12.8
47	Jérémy Prat Yves Semete	Renault Clio Rally5	RC5	4:00'42.6	48'40.6
48	Filippo Marchino Pietro Elia	Škoda Fabia R5	RC2	4:01'58.4	49'56.4
49	Jérôme Aymard Sandrine Aymard	Renault Clio RS R3T	RC4	4:07'08.3	55'06.3
50	Julien Charnay Maxime Gomez	Renault Clio Rally5	RC5	4:07'34.1	55'32.1
51	Baudouin Baugé Nicolas Blanc	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	4:08'52.8	56'50.8
52	Fabrizio Arengi Massimiliano Bosi	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	RC2	4:09'30.5	57'28.5
53	Sebastiano Ciato Andrea Budoia	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	4:09'30.7	57'28.7
54	Gilles Michellier Christophe Richard	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	4:09'34.9	57'32.9
55	Lilian Vialle Manuel Ghirardello	Renault Clio Rally5	RC5	4:10'40.0	58'38.0
56	Henk Vossen Annemieke Hulzebos	Ford Fiesta R5	RC2	4:14'05.8	1:02'03.8
57	Josh McErlean John Rowan	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	RC2	4:15'45.1	1:03'43.1
58	Christophe Berard Christophe Bernabo	Renault Clio Rally5	RC5	4:17'33.2	1:05'31.2
59	Olivier Burri Anderson Levratti	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	RC2	4:23'05.9	1:11'03.9
60	Pierre Tanci Sébastien Malet	Škoda Fabia R5	RC2	4:32'41.3	1:20'39.3
61	Daniel Alonso Adrián Pérez	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2	4:34'35.1	1:22'33.1
62	Jean-Paul Palmero Mattia Pastorino	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	4:36'27.2	1:24'25.2
63	Jérémie Mallard Alexis Marest-Ceccaldi	Ford Fiesta R2T	RC4	4:39'24.7	1:27'22.7
64	Grégory Fontalba Stéphan Hermet	Alpine A110 Rally RGT	RGT	4:42'35.0	1:30'33.0
65	Giorgio Marazzato Elisa Sommariva	Peugeot 208 R2	RC4	4:44'25.0	1:32'23.0
66	Marc Dessi Pamela Dessi	Renault Clio Rally5	RC5	4:53'24.6	1:41'22.6
67	Grégory Dal Hervé Dubreuil	Peugeot 208 Rally4	RC4	5:04'30.7	1:52'28.7
	Pierre-Louis Loubet Nicolas Gilsoul	Ford Puma Rally1	RC1
	Frédéric Rosati Philippe Marchetto	Hyundai i20 N Rally2	RC2
	Sean Johnston Alexander Kihurani	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2
	Eamonn Boland Michael Joseph Morrissey	Citroën C3 Rally2	RC2
	Richard Frau Stéphane Marquez	Alpine A110 Rally RGT	RGT
	Jonathan Hirschi Michael Volluz	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	RC2
	Pierre Pergola Fabrice Corona	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	RC2
	Sami Pajari Enni Mälkönen	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	RC2
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