Sebastién Ogier sent a warning shot to his World Rally Championship rivals by setting the Monte Carlo Rally shakedown pace on his debut for Toyota.
The winner of the past six Montes, Ogier’s time of 1m57.1s on his first run was sufficient to hold off Hyundai rival Thierry Neuville by a single tenth of a second.
The shakedown is taking place on a 2.1-mile course in Gap, in snow-free dry conditions.
The stage remains open until 8pm local time for the entire field, after an initial two hours reserved for priority crews, but the early times are likely to stand as the fastest as the road becomes dirtier and light fades.
Despite his recently unstoppable record on this rally, Ogier believes this weekend’s event is wide open following the winter of driver moves and with the weather unpredictable.
“I think more or less every car that starts the rally should be able to win it,” he said.
It was a 1-3 result for Toyota, as Ogier’s fellow new signing Elfyn Evans pipped reigning world champion Ott Tänak – who has swapped Toyota for Hyundai over the winter – to third.
Tänak’s time was 1.2s away from Ogier, and he summarised his start with Hyundai as “so far, so good” but underlined that he was still getting to know the i20.
“A lot is new and we have a lot to discover,” he added.
Most of the World Rally Car field’s best times came on their second runs, but Ogier and Neuville’s benchmarks from their first passes stood as the top two times overall. They returned to service for tweaks in between runs, and by the time they ran again the road had become dirtier as more runners pulled mud onto the asphalt.
Teemu Suninen was the leading M-Sport Ford driver in fifth, 2.2s off the pace and three tenths of a second ahead of new team-mate Esapekka Lappi.
“I feel really excited – I am shaking a bit to be honest!” said Citroën convert Lappi. “It’s a new adventure but I’m like a little boy – it’s very exciting!”
Seven-time Monte winner Sébastien Loeb was down in ninth as he returned to action for Hyundai, among young guns Kalle Rovanperä, Gus Greensmith – who had been up in sixth after the first runs – and Takamoto Katsuta.
Mads Ostberg led the WRC 2 and R5 contingent, just under two seconds clear of nearest rival Adrien Formaux.
Leading shakedown times
1. Ogier (Toyota) 1m57.1s
2. Neuville (Hyundai) +0.1s
3. Evans (Toyota) +0.6s
4. Tänak (Hyundai) +1.2s
5. Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +2.3s
6. Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +2.6s
7. Rovanperä (Toyota) +2.9s
8. Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +3.1s
9. Loeb (Hyundai) +3.5s
10. Katsuta (Toyota) +4.8s
