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Paris (AFP) – Imperial from start to finish: Frenchman Sébastien Ogier, luxury freelancer at Toyota this season in the WRC world championship, won the 9th Monte-Carlo Rally of his career on Sunday, a record on the event.
“It’s huge!” Savored the eight-time French world champion, engaged in a partial program like last season with the Japanese manufacturer.
“We need to take advantage of these moments and that’s why we are always present, to achieve victories like this. A victory as famous as that of Monte is priceless”, continued the one who is now teaming up with Vincent Landais as co-pilot.
With nine victories on the clock (one in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) in 2009 and eight WRC since 2014) Ogier, 39, now surpasses his compatriot, the nine-time world rally champion Sébastien Loeb, on the record of the Monegasque event.
Victorious for the 8th time last year in the Monegasque round, the Alsatian was not aligned at the start of the rally this year. But he still wanted to congratulate the new record holder on Twitter: “Bravo @SebOgier. When will the revenge of the WRC “retirees” come?”.
Leading the rally from the first laps on Thursday evening, Ogier dominated the event from start to finish, winning nine of the 18 stages.
He won this first round of the year ahead of his teammate, the reigning Finnish world champion Kalle Rovanperä.
“It was a good round, we can be satisfied with this second place”, welcomed the young driver of 22 years, who crossed the bar of 100 victories on Saturday in specials.
Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) completes the podium, ahead of Elfyn Evans (Toyota), 4th.
Toyota at the forefront
Reigning constructors’ world champion, Toyota hit hard this weekend, placing three cars in the Top 5. Takamoto Katsuta, who will replace Ogier at the wheel of the third factory Toyota when he is not at the start , finished 6th.
For his first rally at the head of the Hyundai team, the Frenchman Cyril Abiteboul had a more mixed weekend: if Neuville saved the honor, the Finn Esapekka Lappi failed in 8th place for his debut with the constructors South Korean, behind his Spanish teammate Dani Sordo, 7th.
“A podium is good, but we are still 45 seconds from victory,” said Abiteboul after the rally.
“We need more pace, we tried to be more aggressive with the car set-up and looking back we should have done it earlier in the weekend which could have given better dynamics and more confidence in the teams”, he also regretted.
The other Frenchman entered in the queen category, Pierre-Louis Loubet, experienced a nightmarish rally, the fault of an accident and various mechanical problems throughout the weekend. The Corsican driver had to definitively retire on Sunday with two stages remaining, for his first full season in the World Rally Championship.
His teammate at M-Sport Ford, Ott Tänak ranks 5th. The day before, the 2019 WRC world champion notably had problems with his power steering, which delayed him.
In the championship standings, Ogier (26 points) three points behind Kalle Rovanperä (23), author of the best time in the final Power Stage, with five bonus points at stake.
The Finn who, unlike Ogier, will play the whole of the season, therefore carries out the excellent operation of the weekend. Neuville, third, has 17 points.
Thirteen races are on the program this year, the next being Rally Sweden (February 9-12) for a 100% snow-covered event a few hundred kilometers from the Arctic Circle.
© 2023 AFP