Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais overcame everything that Rallye Monte Carlo could throw their way to claim a dominant 10^th victory at the famous event. He used every ounce of experience he’d gained over the years to conquer the treacherous route, his only moment over the entire weekend came when he clipped a pole in Thursday evening’s third stage. Flawless, in other words.

Their winning margin over their Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin was 18.5 seconds although the Welshman had to dig deep on Sunday as Hyundai’s new signing Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria closed to just four seconds in the fight for second overall.

Fourmaux started the day in third position overall but was quickly swept aside by a determined Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja in Sunday’s opening stage, not helped by the Frenchman’s slow time in the dark and icy stage.

Fourmaux struck back on stage 17, pummeling the Estonian’s time by 23.3 seconds on the penultimate test of the rally, demoting Tanak back to fourth. Tanak’s slow time put him into the clutches of Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen and sure enough, in the final Wolf Power Stage, Tanak was pushed back to fifth.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe had a torrid start to their title defense, clawing their way back to sixth place after three separate issues struck on Friday and Saturday while newbies Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy brought their Ford Puma home without a scratch on it to complete their Rally1 debut in seventh.

Toyota locked out the top three Super Sunday points paying positions with Fourmaux and Neuville taking the crumbs home this time out.

The opening stage of the day took care of Sami Pajari who skidded into a bridge and landed in a ravine, while  Takamoto Katsuta buried his GR Yaris into the undergrowth 1.8km into the stage.

Johan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand were untouchable in their Citroen C3 Rally2, taking a dominant win in WRC2, beating the non-points scoring Nikolay Gryazin by 1’13.9”. Eric Camilli took a last gasp second place in WRC2, beating out Leo Rossel in the final stage. It was the younger Rossel’s first rally in WRC2 and a first podium…

Read the full story in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.

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The 2025 FIA World Rally Championship got underway with three night stages high up in the French Alps. Under the gaze of tens of thousands of spectators who lit up the night sky with fireworks and flares, Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe ended the trio of stages on top of the standings by two seconds after cautiously threading their Hyundai i20 N through the tricky mountain pass roads.

Conditions ranged from dry and wet tarmac to hidden patches of black ice which Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais conquered to lead after two stages. An expensive spin into a pole in the final stage saw the multiple champion lose 12 seconds and drop to third overall.

“On the first part [of SS3] I was painting the road, and in the last part I was cleaning the road!” Neuville smiled. “Super tricky to keep it on the road. I’m happy with the first day. Overall, our target was to finish today.”

“[It was] difficult of course. A lot of mud on the road and we hit a pole sideways. It’s always lucky to get away with that,” said Ogier at the stop control.

Sandwiched between the Hyundai and Ogier was Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin in their GR Yaris, two seconds off the lead.

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja ended fourth, some 27 seconds adrift of the reigning World Champion with Hyundai’s third crew Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria finishing in fifth. The Frenchman shone on stage two, beating Tanak’s time by 3.1 seconds.

Kalle Rovanpera, returning for a full season campaign with Toyota was a little rusty and ended down in sixth position with M-Sport Ford’s new team leader Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka slotting into seventh in the standings. The Luxembourger hustled his Puma to the fourth fastest time in the final stage of the evening, narrowing the gap to Rovanpera to 4.9 seconds.

Fighting a bout of flu, Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston ended eighth, 4’30” behind the Ford.

Sami Pajari, making his Monte Rally1 debut and with Marko Salminen reading the notes finished a cautious ninth ahead of the top Rally2 team of Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov, now Skoda mounted.

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy, making their Rally1 debut in the second M-Sport Ford Puma, ended in 12^th position after taking a sensible approach to the start of their new career path.

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Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team has announced its line-up for the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship season as it further strengthens its squad of drivers with a mix of young talent and title-winning experience.

After winning eight out of 13 rallies in 2024 and claiming a fourth consecutive manufacturers’ championship at the season-ending Rally Japan, TGR-WRT will enter 2025 with the mission to defend its crown and fight for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles. It will be able to count on an expanded line-up of cars and drivers, with four or five GR Yaris Rally1 entries set to appear on each event.

Joining the team to start his first full season at the highest level will be22 year-old Finn Sami Pajari, following an impressive 2024 season in which he won the WRC2 drivers’ championship driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car and performed well in his first three outings in Rally1 machinery in Finland, Chile and Central Europe. Pajari’s inclusion in the TGR-WRT roster demonstrates their commitment to developing young drivers as well as the GR Yaris Rally2’s role in providing a pathway to the top of the sport.

Pajari, who will confirm the identity of his co-driver in due course, is one of four drivers who are set to feature on every rally.

Double world champions Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen will return to competing full-time with the team in 2025 after taking four wins from seven starts during a partial campaign this year. Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin, winners of last weekend’s Rally Japan, continue for their sixth successive season with the team, with Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston also returning for another year. Eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais will once more contest a partial schedule of selected events after scoring three victories this season.

Jari-Matti Latvala will continue in the role of Team Principal and will drive one of the most successful Toyota rally cars – the Celica ST185 – in Toyota Gazoo Racing colours in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship.

Juha Kankkunen will take up the role of Deputy Team Principal. A four-time world champion, who won the last of his titles driving the Toyota Celica ST185 in 1993, Kankkunen will bring considerable experience to share with the drivers and other team members

The post Toyota Gazoo Racing announces strong WRC line-up for 2025 appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja completed Saturday’s six stages with a healthy 36 second lead over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin with just the super special stage still to run.

The championship leaders, Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe stormed through the field from 15^th overall to seventh to provisionally earn four of the six points they need to secure their and Hyundai’s first Driver’s and Co-Driver’s Championships.

Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais are currently in third, followed by Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria in the Ford Puma.

Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston are fifth after spinning in stage 12, dropping out of the podium fight.

Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka are sixth.

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov are safe in the lead with Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen comfortable in a championship-winning second.

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The fierce battle for the lead of WRC Central Europe Rally raged over Saturday’s six stages where Sebastian Ogier emerged at the end of the day with a 5.2 second lead over Ott Tänak with Elfyn Evans giving Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Manufacturers’ Championship hopes a boost in third.

The overnight leader, Thierry Neuville suffered  a major setback in stage 11, the third of the day when he spun his Hyundai i20 N and a minute slater, went off the road altogether and got stuck in a ditch which cost the Belgian nearly 40 seconds which knocked him out of the lead and down into fourth position overall.

Neuville, hoping to claim his long awaited maiden WRC title needs to outscore Tänak by two points, but facing a 39.8 second deficit, may have to put the champagne back in the fridge until Rally Japan.

Four stages and 54km await on Sunday and as today’s action proved, nothing is certain in the WRC!

Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari held fifth and sixth places overall respectively, with Grégoire Munster in seventh. Adrien Fourmaux had a spin in stage nine, the first of the day, and was later forced to retire his Ford Puma with a differential problem.

Nikolay Gryazin and Citroen rule the WRC2 roost from the non-points scoring Oliver Solberg by 31 seconds, leaving Filip Mares in second and Miko Marczyk third in the premier support class.

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Thierry Neuville leads the WRC Central European Rally by 6.9 seconds from Sebastian Ogier at the end of Friday’s six stages and 111km of racing across sometimes damp and treacherously slippery roads in the Czech Republic, coated with leaves as Autumn sets in over the northern hemisphere.

If the CER was to end on Friday, Thierry Neuville and Martin Wydaeghe would be World Rally Champions. It hasn’t ended, but he is the required two points ahead of his teammate Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja, who lie third overall.

Neuville powered into the lead of the penultimate round of the WRC in stage five, enjoying a 2.7 second advantage over the leading Toyota GR Yaris of Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais, who lost a few seconds after running wide in the stage when conditions were a combination of damp roads and slippery autumn leaves.

“We stopped so nothing happened”, said Ogier at the end of stage interview. “We lost a bit of time. Wasn’t a good stage for me.”

Neuville inched away over the afternoon loop of three stages with two second fastest times in stages six and eight and winning stage seven, ending his visit to the Czech Republic in the pound seats.

“I am happy to be at the end. It is easy to make a mistake and I knew the only thing that was important to us was to make it to the end. Some spots are falling of rain, but it is quite greasy in there, so we played it safe and came through,” said Neuville.

The margins between the top four are tiny: Tänak is three seconds adrift of Ogier and Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin are 0.8 seconds behind Tänak.

Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston were in the fight – the Japanese driver won stage six – but he fell away as the day progressed to end fifth overall.

Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen ended sixth overall, ahead of the two M-Sport Ford Puma’s of Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria and Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka, both suffered hybrid issues in stage four, as did Andreas Mikkelsen and Sami Pajari.

Mikkelsen exited stage left, or more accurately, stage right when he understeered off the road and through a fence in the high-speed fifth stage. With his wrecked Hyundai resting well into the road, the stage was red flagged.

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov lead the way 3.1 seconds ahead of the non-points scoring Oliver Solberg, with Filip Mares/Radovan Bucha in a net second in WRC2.

Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral are fifth, but 1:36.7 away from the lead of a rally they must win to stay in title contention.

There’s still 177.5km and ten stages remaining and in spite of his “It’s over now” comment at the end of Thursday’s stages, it clearly isn’t.

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Two stages and 14.33km of action on the opening day of the WRC Central European Rally saw Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais make the early running in their Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris, 0.9 seconds up on champion-elect Thierry Neuville and Martin Wydaeghe in the leading Shell Mobis Hyundai i20 N.

Neuville needs to outscore his title rival and teammate Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja by two points to seal his long awaited WRC crown. As things stand, he is doing just that as Tänak is fifth overall…

However, Neuville kissed a hay bale in SS2, wiping out some of his car’s aero bits n bobs on the right front. “I can’t be happy to be honest. I took off the aero in the front right by stupidly touching a straw bale. I didn’t know it but it will handicap me for the whole morning tomorrow. Even here, we touched some, but we have nothing to lose anymore, it is gone already.”

He won the stage, though, by one second…

Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen are 0.8 seconds behind the Belgian crew in third, 0.8 seconds behind, with the returning Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston 0.3 seconds further back and 0.1 ahead of Tänak.

Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria are sixth in the M-Sport Ford Puma, followed by Elfyn Evans, Sami Pajari – having his Rally1 tarmac debut and Grégoire Munster in the second Puma.

Oliver Solberg/Elliot Edmondson lead the WRC2 chase, even though they are not eligible to score points while WRC2 title rival Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral, who must win to keep their championship challenge alive, are 32.5 seconds off Solberg after so nearly rolling his Citroen C3 after hitting a hay bale in SS2. The impact broke a wheel and he is currently in 10^th position in WRC2 with a mountain to climb over the next two days.

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Thierry Neuville extended his WRC lead to 34 points after he and co-driver Martin Wydaeghe won the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece, heading a podium lockout for Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT.

Sebastian Ogier rolled in the final Wolf Power Stage when he carried too much speed into a left hander. The crew got going again and completed the stage, crucially securing the15 points earned on Friday and Saturday. In all, 20 minutes was lost.

Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera and Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja both moved up one position with Tanak moving back into second in the championship standings.

Hyundai now leads Toyota Gazoo Racing by 35 points in the Manufacturers’ Championship.

Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria blasted their M-Sport Ford Puma to the Power Stage win.

After 305.3km of brutal stages, Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) and crowd-funded Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Skoda Fabia WRC2) tied to the tenth of a second for the WRC2 win! The victory went to Pajari – crucial for his championship hopes – as he set the fastest time in SS1.

Read Motorsport Monday for a full report

The post Breaking: Neuville heads Hyundai 1–2–3 as Ogier rolls in final stage appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais took Rally Greece by the scruff of the neck and opened up a 5.6 second lead in the morning loop of stages, before enjoying an 11.7 second lead after stage four. It went south for the eight time champion in stage five, losing tons of time with a broken turbo. He ended the day in fourth, 45.2 seconds off the lead.

The opening day was a brutal one for Toyota Gazoo Racing. Elfyn Evans stopped in the first stage to change a wheel and was seen working on his car in the open section heading to stage two. In the next stage, he lost turbo boost and ended the day in 19^th place, 9 min 55.5 off the lead!

Takamoto Katsuta won stage two and held second overall until the next stage when he retired after crashing out. Maybe TGR should install an in-car entertainment system, and load it with Taylor Swift’s song “You need to calm down.”

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja took over at the head of the timesheets after Ogier’s issues, followed by Dani Sordo in the third Hyundai with title leader Thierry Neuville in third. The Belgian, as he has all year, opened the road so to be third overall – albeit it 46.6 seconds behind Tänak- and claim the honours in stage six, wasn’t too bad,

Adrien Fourmaux was a sensational second overall in his M-Sport Ford Puma but retired in stage four after damaging the Puma’s steering after a heavy landing following a jump.

Gregoire Munster held fifth, and excellent position for the Luxembourger in the second M-Sport Ford Puma.

In WRC2, Yohan Rossel had a 45 second lead over Sami Pajari after stage five, but by the time the clocks stopped after stage six, he was in sixth overall, following a puncture. Robert Virves leads Pajari by 1.5 seconds.

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Toyota Gazoo Racing suffered a nightmare Sunday in Finland.

No one expected Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais to win the 2024 WRC Secto Rally Finland, least of all Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais.

But win it they did, 11 years after last taking victory on the World Rally Championship’s fastest rally.

Rovanperä won 11 stages of the 18 he completed, Ogier took just one win. The eight-time WRC Champion’s 61^st victory puts him into second place in the championship standings, not bad for a part-season driver!

“It’s hard to smile right now. A win in Finland is always nice but that is not the way we like to have it. Very sorry for Kalle and Jonne, amazing pace all weekend. We were unlucky in Sardinia and lost in the last stage but we are luck here. That is motorsport. I have to see if we do a full campaign but it looks like I have no other option. It is not my priority anymore but we will see,” said the rally winner.

Until stage 18 out of 20, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen had a three quarter of a minute lead but in stage 19, in all unraveled as he crashed heavily on the last proper corner of the rally. A massive rock on the racing line lifted the front of the car into the air and fired the Yaris into the trees and a huge roll – Rovanperä was a passenger and there was nothing the double world champion could do.

This came on the same stage that Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin crashed out 200m into the stage, their GR Yaris sliding wide, clipping a tree on the right which ricocheted them into the trees on the inside of the corner, leaving a trail of broken Toyota pieces littering the stage.

Thierry Neuville was into second and from a championship point of view, very much in the pound seat, 27 points ahead of Ogier. Adrien Fourmaux claimed his fourth podium of the year while Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen ended their Rally1 debut in fourth overall, banking their first top-tier stage win to boot.

Super Sunday honours – and the points – went to Esapekka Lappi from Takamoto Katsuta and Ogier while Katsuta won the Wolf Power Stage
Hyundai have opened up a 20 point lead in the Manufacturers’ stnadings, adding further to TGR’s misery.

Just four Rally1 cars made it through the 20 stages, leaving WRC2 winner Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson in fifth overall and a perfect drive. Toyota Gazoo Racing Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver Juho Hänninen, enjoying a one-off outing in a GR Yaris Rally2, came home in second place ahead of the Skoda Fabia of Lauri Joona and Janni Hussi.

Read the full report in Motorsport Monday tomorrow

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