Ogier the king as WRC pack reshuffles

As momentum shifted among this year's title contenders, the Monte master extended his own record

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Had I closed my eyes, I’m sure I’d have thought I was at a soccer match. The sudden eruption from the crowd was breathtaking.

Sébastien Ogier really is the king in these parts. Arriving back to the service park in Gap – his hometown – with a 12.6-second lead in his pocket, everyone wanted a bit of him.

The cheers were akin to a World Cup winning goal. Instead, the Toyota driver had simply clambered out of his GR Yaris Rally1. It’s moments like this where you can’t help but smile.

I was sauntering through, targeting Hyundai’s service area for a word with Thierry Neuville who we’d missed in the media zone. But I had to stop, drink it in, and enjoy the spectacle of a sporting superstar making the world a happier place.

We’ll still never know if Ogier would prove best over a full 14-round season, but what we do know is the Monte Carlo Rally remains his territory.

I’d actually done the math before he pointed it out to me on the balcony of Monaco’s Cafe de Paris, a mere hour before his latest pursuit of Monte mastery was to begin. Of his last 12 Monte starts, he’d never finished lower than second. And eight of those were wins.

The Monte Carlo Rally is the ultimate spin of the roulette wheel, but Ogier was the safest of safe bets for yet more success. He didn’t disappoint.

But this year’s installment was as much about the faltering starts for two pre-season favorites as it was Ogier’s relentless brilliance on the rally that means more to him than any other.

Rewind the record 12 months, and the picture looked rather different. Ogier was off-balance, struck a major blow by the passing of his uncle on the week of the rally, and Thierry Neuville cleaned up. All 30 points were secured and this was ultimately the foundation for Neuville’s maiden world title after years of endlessly trying.

How will we ultimately reflect on the opening chapter of Neuville’s title defense? It’s far too early to say, but his Monte was only convincing if you’re sure the Belgian isn’t going to make it two this year.

The irony is it was all going well: leading after Thursday’s trio of stages, while it was Ogier who’d faltered and made the collector’s item mistake: “collecting a pole sideways” in his words and giving up 20s to his grateful rivals.

But the run from La Bréole to Selonnet would prove Neuville’s undoing. Not once, but twice.

The first time around he misjudged his braking into a hairpin and in his effort to limit the damage, he caused some by compromising his rear-left suspension. Cue a hobbled, but ultimately successful, effort to make it back to service.

And then, remarkably, the very same corner caught Neuville out in the afternoon. Although this time, the reason was more understandable. A flat tire had affected his Hyundai’s ability to stop, and he went straight off before continuing again.

Clouting a rock face on Saturday, hours after being forced to reset his i20, compounded the issue further, while his expected Super Sunday charge after a disappointing start (a key pillar of his 2024 title success) failed to materialize.

Neuville may have the #1 proudly stickered on his car for the year, but Monte was not a top performance from Hyundai’s star.

Even with reigning world champion status, Toyota’s Finnish superstar is the one many see as the hot title favorite in 2025. The last time he took on a full season, he won. The time before that? He dominated.

But Kalle Rovanperä was in anything but a dominant mood in the mountains north of Monaco. Bemused by a general lack of speed, the 24-year-old turned it on at points and the results were crushing. But generally, he lacked the one thing he’s renowned for: raw pace.

Rovanperä’s theory was his driving style wasn’t matched to Hankook’s new rubber yet. Jari-Matti Latvala wondered if his recent time spent circuit racing had made him a bit less confident on WRC-spec dry Tarmac (after all, this was Rovanperä’s first Tarmac rally in the championship since November 2023).

Either way, the net result was the same: Rovanperä was not in the same league as his fellow Toyota world champion Ogier, but was self-deprecating about it all.

“Let’s see in Sweden if we can remember how to drive a rally car or not.”

It seems quite unlikely we’ll be having the same conversation about Rovanperä on the flight home from Umeå.

So if Neuville and Rovanperä failed to deliver on their odds, what about 2025’s other full-time world champion? Ott Tänak. Tricky, because it depends which day you’re asking.

The Estonian’s rally is harder to read because it was such a mixed bag. Extremely lucky to avoid more serious drama on Friday when he was too hot into a left-hander, ran into a ditch and swiped a telegraph pole which dislodged the entire rear bodywork of his car, Tänak was peerless on Saturday as changes made to the Hyundai – coupled to a deeper understanding of Hankook’s covers – unleashed him.

But instead of snaring a podium that looked so certain, he lost fourth place to Rovanperä on Sunday and regressed to a more frustrated figure come the media zone in Monaco’s harbor.

Photographer: Vincent ThuillierWorldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH

Tänak flew on Saturday, only to revert to anonymity on Sunday

Between them, Neuville, Rovanperä and Tänak emerged with only five more points than Ogier scored on his own. But this is round one: the season’s far from over yet.

Talk to Elfyn Evans and Adrien Fourmaux however, and the rhetoric will switch. ‘This is an indication of how the season will run,’ they’ll hope. For the Toyota and Hyundai men were awesome on this deceptively tricky Monte.

Dry January is very much ‘in’ right now, but not for the WRC’s finest (in terms of stage conditions, at least). Even when the conditions were stable, road pollution was at its worst and made tire calls extremely difficult. Particularly when you consider the change in supplier left drivers far from confident of the performance window and characteristics of each compound.

Not that that stopped some of them throwing it all on red.

Enter the chat, Mr Fourmaux. His Monte was already going swimmingly with a stage win on Friday and an epic ding-dong battle for second with Evans – a driver who’d been with his team for five years already, not (figuratively) five minutes.

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Fourmaux signaled his intent by refusing to settle for third

A podium result, even if it was behind Evans, would represent a fantastic start to his new life as a Hyundai pilot. But Fourmaux showed the side to him that has many marking him out as a future world champion. Rolling over and accepting his fate was not part of his plan.

While co-drivers ran around with their phones and flashlights activated, inspecting the tire choices their rivals had selected, Fourmaux stood tall and proud. That first stage on Sunday morning, held in the dark, was one for the studded winter tire all day long? Surely.

Not if you’re Fourmaux. Two studs, and two super-softs – yes super-softs in 0C (32F) – was a huge gamble. But it was a gamble Fourmaux was willing to take.

The Frenchman lost time on the opener, but that was always part of the plan. His eyes were on the final two stages of the rally, where he was banking on the snow and ice rumored to be on the Col de Turini melting away.

His bravery certainly had Evans worried. Pulling up to the stop control of SS17 of 18, the Welshman sounded like a beaten man: “We knew after the first one it would be difficult to keep Fourmaux behind now, but we do what we can do,” he said.

Second place? “It’s his to lose now.”

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Fourmaux had Evans worried...

But for all the plaudits Fourmaux rightfully deserves, Evans deserves as many. This was an important statement drive from a driver who too often has been happy to play it safe and not go on the offensive.

His stage-end statement may suggest nothing had changed, but his powerstage performance was quite the contrary. On the same tire package for that last stage, this would be a straight fight and Evans’ sketchy slide towards the end of the test proved how badly he wanted it.

That slide would cost him a powerstage win, but second place and full Super Sunday points were his. Magic.

Perhaps it will prove to be a poisoned chalice as the result hands Evans the handicap of going first in Sweden, but the marker he’s set is more important. Seen by many as the outsider against three world champions this year, it’s his name that shone brightest to start the year.

As for Fourmaux, he’s proved another important point. Those feet are not being lifted from the ground – nor the throttle pedal! Ballsy yet controlled, Hyundai has got its hands on a real gem, who was safe in the knowledge that he couldn’t have done any more.

“We had to take the risk, because we knew that if Turini was wet and not how it was there it could have been faster, definitely, so it’s some extra points for the powerstage,” Fourmaux told DirtFish.

“And the second stage was also a mix of ice and humid, we just had to know where was the ice but it doesn’t matter if you’ve got studs or slicks – if you go flat in the corner that is full ice you will go off. So you just need to be careful and it was working well.

“It’s just really a shame for Turini that it wasn’t as quick as I expected. I would make the same choice again, the only thing is I would have pushed a bit more on the first stage, that’s my only regret.”

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... but the Welshman defied his critics to become the de facto championship leader

The man devoid of any regret, however, is Ogier.

As the momentum shuffles between Evans, Neuville, Tänak and Rovanperä (and potentially Fourmaux; why not in this form?) in the quest to be top of the deck, Ogier is this year’s joker card.

Personally, I still remain utterly convinced he has another world championship title in him. But that’s a tantalizing thought we’re never going to realize.

Instead, we can only marvel about what he continually is capable of producing. Together with Vincent Landais, he was imperious. Again.

It wasn’t the smoothest of rides with that Thursday mistake, but if rallying was taught in universities Ogier would be the case study in how to manage things from the front.

But it wasn’t history on Ogier’s mind as he got the job done on his home turf for an unprecedented 10th time. Rather the satisfaction that his late uncle had been watching over him.

“This weekend I have to admit that I had some lucky moments,” he said, looking up to the sky.

“And definitely it was my uncle’s star shining for me.”

Somewhere within that jubilant crowd on Friday night, it was the voice of Ogier’s uncle who shouted the loudest. Some things never change.

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