Tänak quickest on Monte shakedown

Hyundai driver sets the pace on the first shakedown of the new season

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Ott Tänak set the pace on shakedown for the Monte Carlo Rally, the first against-the-clock action of the 2025 World Rally Championship season.

The Hyundai driver was 0.7 seconds faster than Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä over the two-mile Route de la Garde test, familiar to most from last year, with Rovanperä’s team-mate Sébastien Ogier third fastest.

In the first timed runs on the WRC’s new Hankook rubber, and with Rally1 cars no longer running hybrid systems, drivers were faced with wet weather. The tricky conditions quickly deteriorated further as more mud was pulled onto the road, giving the first few cars an advantage over those behind.

Tänak was third to tackle the route and managed a time 1.3s faster than his world champion team-mate Thierry Neuville, who opened the road.

“It looks quite tricky like this,” Tänak reported. “The grip is quite unpredictable at the moment, and not so much of that at the moment, so it’s tricky.”

For Rovanperä to achieve the second fastest time, despite being only the seventh car through the stage, made his effort look all the more impressive.

“Yeah, it’s getting really, really dirty – and quickly – so it’s not so bad time considering the starting place,” admitted the two-time world champion, who is making his full-time return to the series this week. “The road is already full of mud everywhere so I think it’s going to be a tricky weekend, especially the Thursday and Friday when we are not in the same starting place [as the other expected frontrunners].”

Ogier was a further 0.1s down on Rovanperä. Unlike all the other drivers, the nine-time Monte winner immediately took a second run through the stage and improved by more than a second, having been almost 2s down on Tänak’s pace at the first attempt.

“So far the conditions are not the likely ones to see in Monte Carlo – not so much snow, a lot of water, getting very quickly dirty on the road,” he grimaced. “So it might be a very difficult weekend.”

Elfyn Evans completed a trio of GR Yaris Rally1s split by just 0.2s, fourth fastest overall. After last year’s relatively mild and consistent conditions, the Welshman is expecting a more challenging Monte this week. “You have to try and enjoy it in all the madness somewhere,” he joked.

After returning for a second run, Neuville improved his time, but remained fifth fastest, 1s slower than Tänak. “Number one on the car, but it doesn’t mean that it will be any easier this year,” professed the world champion.

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Takamoto Katsuta was the fourth of the manufacturer Toyotas

The top six was completed by Neuville’s new team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, who has made the switch from M-Sport for 2025, having run a mixture of winter and wet rubber on his i20 N.

“It’s going to be a big challenge for all of us with the new tire,” he reckoned, joking that his realistic target was to “make the right tire choice all the time”!

Seventh was Takamoto Katsuta, ahead of the quickest Ford Puma: M-Sport new boy Josh McErlean. Keen to maximize his seat time in the Rally1 car, the Irishman took four runs through the stage and steadily improved his times to end up 4.6s down on the overall pace.

“It’s the stuff of dreams so let’s ride the rollercoaster and see how it goes,” he said of his graduation from the WRC2 ranks.

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McErlean was quickest of the Pumas on his Rally1 debut

McErlean outpaced team-mate Grégoire Munster by 1.2s after the more experience driver encountered handbrake problems on his Puma.

The Rally1 field was completed by Toyota’s Sami Pajari. Marking his full-time debut with the squad, the WRC2 champion’s run was comprised by slowing to avoid deer on the road.

Pajari’s erstwhile WRC2 rival Oliver Solberg set the pace among Rally2 machinery, some 3.2s clear of Nikolay Gryazin’s Škoda, although neither are registered for WRC2 points this weekend.

Yohan Rossel’s Citroën C3 was quickest of the points scoreres after his second run, surviving a low-speed spin on his first.

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