At the end of the final day of Rallye Monte Carlo, Sebastien Ogier wins the first round of this year's championship with Kalle Rovanpera and Thierry Neuville finishing behind him.
Sebastien Ogier wins Rallye Monte Carlo for ninth time in his career and is the driver with the most victories there as Sebastien Loeb has only won eight times. He set the fastest time in Stages 15 and 17 and generally he was managing his lead since Saturday evening. Last but not least, his co-driver Vincent Landais wins a rally for the first time in his WRC career.
Kalle Rovanpera completes the 1-2 for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT and was the quickest driver in Stage 16. He was not able to catch his teammate on the overall classification as their gap is at 18,8 seconds. Moreover, he stole the win of Powerstage from Ott Tanak and takes the five extra points from it. He was faster than the M-Sport driver for six tenths of a second in PS.
Thierry Neuville finished on the lowest place of the podium and dropped some seconds on the opening stage of the day as he had a spin on the first corner of SS15 and reported a hybrid issue. Moreover, he stated at DirtFish that Hyundai had to stick with a specific set-up which was not the ideal for the dry conditions in Alps.
Elfyn Evans remains in fourth place overall and was very lucky in Stage 16 as he came off the throttle at a tight hairpin and had a half spin. He lost 10,5 seconds in that stage as he had to reverse to get going again.
Ott Tanak completes the top five and was not pushing enough in the first three stages of Sunday as he wanted to save his tyres for Powerstage. His fifth place was under threat by Takamoto Katsuta at the end of SS17 as their between gap was at one tenth of a second. Finally, he was the second fastest driver in Powerstage and scored the four extra points.
The Japanese driver finished sixth overall and set the second fastest time on the penultimate stage of the rally. However, he hit something in Powerstage and damaged the rear left suspension resulting in dropping time in that stage and eventually losing the chance to steal the fifth place from Tanak.
Dani Sordo was still out of pace as the hybrid unit was not working properly during Stage 16 while he received a 10-second time penalty in Stage 15 due to a jump start, but the stewards cancelled their decision as the stopwatch at the start control was not working well. The Spaniard was the second best driver for Hyundai and gave points for the manufacturers' championship as he finished seventh overall ahead of Esapekka Lappi.
The Finn driver hold his eighth overall and Rallye Monte Carlo was his first event wearing the Hyundai colors.
Pierre-Louis Loubet was forced to retire before the start of SS17 as he was working on his Puma trying to fix a water leak, but he ran out of time on the road section and M-Sport Ford confirmed his second retirement at Rallye Monte Carlo.
Nikolay Gryazin was the winner of Rallye Monte Carlo in WRC2 class and became the first Skoda driver who won a rally with the brand-new Fabia RS Rally2 in World Rally Championship.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after the end of Rallye Monte Carlo:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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