2025 Rallye Monte-Carlo – Thursday report
Thierry Neuville led beneath the celebs of Rallye Monte-Carlo on Thursday night, thrilling the hundreds of followers who lined the alpine roads north-west of Monaco as early pacesetter Sébastien Ogier suffered a pricey spin.
The 2025 FIA World Rally Championship season launched in spectacular style, beginning with a ceremonial send-off at Monaco’s iconic On line casino Sq.. From there, crews – together with tens of hundreds of followers – ascended into the French Alps for the opening trio of phases. The night-time motion, illuminated by dazzling headlights and fireworks, was beamed to over 150 international locations by greater than 50 broadcasters.
Chasing a record-extending tenth Monte-Carlo victory, Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 ace Ogier stamped his authority by posting consecutive quickest occasions for the opening two phases. Nonetheless, the Frenchman’s hopes took successful within the remaining take a look at from Avançon to Notre-Dame-du-Laus. A large slide right into a fence put up value him over 20 seconds, dropping him to 3rd.
Neuville, driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1, capitalised on Ogier’s misstep to assert the in a single day lead with a slender 2.0sec benefit over Elfyn Evans’ Toyota. Ogier, in the meantime, trailed 12.8sec additional again in third.
The Belgian relied on Hankook’s newly developed Ventus Z215 tremendous mushy tyres, which carried out reliably on a difficult combination of dry and damp asphalt plus treacherous patches of ice.
“On the primary half [of SS3] I used to be portray the street, and within the final half I used to be cleansing the street!” Neuville smiled. “Tremendous difficult to maintain it on the street. I’m proud of the primary day. General, our goal was to complete at present.”
Ogier counted himself fortunate to flee with out main harm, saying: “[It was] tough in fact. Lots of mud on the street and we hit a pole sideways. It is all the time fortunate to get away with that.”
Hyundai’s Ott Tänak stored issues regular to safe fourth, 27.0sec adrift of Neuville’s lead. The Estonian overtook debuting team-mate Adrien Fourmaux on SS3, with the Frenchman ending simply 3.0sec behind him.
An additional 13.9sec again was two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä, who returns to Toyota for a full-time marketing campaign in 2025 after his part-time schedule final season. Rovanperä admitted his lack of latest expertise in Monte-Carlo left him on the again foot as he ended the night time down in sixth.
M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 driver Grégoire Munster positioned seventh, edging Takamoto Katsuta – who was battling a bout of the flu – by 4.5sec. Finnish expertise Sami Pajari positioned ninth as Nikolay Gryazin closed out the highest 10 in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Citroën star Yohan Rossel, driving a PH-Sport ready C3, was the highest-placed WRC2-registered driver. He claimed eleventh general forward of Irishman Josh McErlean, who made a cautious however smart begin on his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 debut.
With Oliver Solberg in thirteenth not registered to attain factors on the Monte, Italy’s Alberto Roveta is second within the WRC2 class in a Škoda Fabia RS forward of Hyundai i20 N driver Henk Vossen from the Netherlands.
The rally continues on Friday with six difficult phases totalling over 100 aggressive kilometres.
The outcomes and standings will be considered here.
