Oliver Solberg has started his debut season with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team in style, claiming the early lead of Rallye Monte-Carlo in demanding conditions.
Car 99 (Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson)
As is tradition, the rally began on Thursday afternoon from Monaco. Before he led the field away as the first car over the start ramp on the harbourfront, Sébastien Ogier helped to unveil the GR Yaris Sébastien Ogier 9x World Champion Edition, which marks his record-equalling title success in 2025.
Once the crews had left Monaco, it was Elfyn Evans that set the initial pace in the afternoon’s opening stage held in wet conditions. He claimed the initial lead by 5.6 seconds over Solberg and 12s over Ogier in a GR YARIS Rally1 1-2-3.
The action then moved further north through the French Alps towards Gap, and also into darkness and more typical wintery Rallye Monte-Carlo conditions, with ice and slushy snow at higher altitudes.
Solberg set a stunning time in SS2, going 31.1s faster than anyone else to claim the rally lead. After the evening’s third and final stage of the day, which was ultimately red-flagged due to thick fog, Solberg has a lead of 44.2s over Evans.
Ogier was quickest through SS3 before its cancellation and is third overall, just over a minute from the lead. Takamoto Katsuta is seventh.
Sami Pajari hit a bridge in SS2, damaging the left-rear corner of his car and preventing him from going any further. The team will work tonight to repair his car ready for a restart tomorrow.
TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto has started his full WRC campaign in a GR Yaris Rally2 car, safely completing the opening loop of stages inside the top 10 in the category.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“This has been a very impressive start from Oliver. We spoke before the start of the rally and I said he can just try to get a good consistent run here to begin the year. I didn’t expect him to be so strong in those difficult conditions that the drivers were facing on this first night. We can expect more difficult conditions to come, but so far Oliver seems to be very relaxed and confident. Elfyn also made a good attacking start, and with the big time differences we’re seeing in these conditions, everything is still open for him. The same is true for Seb: we could see he was frustrated tonight, but I’m 100 percent sure he will bounce back strongly tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“We had a good clean start in the first stage this afternoon. The grip was quite low but I just tried to be as smooth as you can be with a mix of studded and slick tyres on the car, and it went fine. Conditions in SS2 were very bad, with no grip at all, so that wasn’t easy. Then in SS3 I couldn’t even see the road in some places. Overall, we can be reasonably happy with our start but it’s also very frustrating to give away time in a situation like that when you’ve worked so hard to earn it.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“It’s been a more-than-challenging start to the rally, and I’m happy to be back in service tonight. On the first stage I was maybe a bit too cautious but it was still a decent start. The big time loss came for us on the next stage with the slush on top of the surface, which was just undriveable for us. There was not much we could have done and it cost us a lot of time. The last stage was also very demanding with the fog but it looks like we managed to get through better than the others.”
Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“It’s been an absolutely incredible start. The conditions have been crazy: every stage was different, every kilometre was different. Sometimes there was a bit of risk, and sometimes I tried to back off and manage. It’s been challenging but good fun. I have a good feeling in the car and everything is working really with the team. To be in this position is amazing – I never expected it and it was never the goal to come here and be leading the rally. There’s still a lot to learn and I’ll just keep doing my best.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I can’t be very happy with my driving and my stage times so far, but I’m very happy to get through such crazy conditions, with rain and snow and fog – a bit of everything really. The time gap is not ideal and not what I would wanted at this stage, but there is still a long way to go and we know that on this rally, anything can happen. So I will just keep going and do my best.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Unfortunately we didn’t have the start to the season that we wanted tonight. In SS2 we got caught out on an icy bridge, and the left-rear wheel hit the barrier. It’s disappointing but at least both Marko and I are OK. I’m sure that the team will be able to fix the car and we have tonight to reset and come back stronger tomorrow.”
End of day one (Thursday):
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 43m10.3s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +44.2s
3 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m08.6s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m25.9s
5 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m34.5s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m44.8s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m24.0s
8 Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m55.2s
9 Eric Camilli/Thibault de la Haye (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3m31.2s
10 Léo Rossel/Guillaume Mercoiret (Citroën C3 Rally2) +3m46.5s
TBC Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1)
(Results as of 23:20 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
Friday is the longest day of the rally, totaling 128.88 competitive kilometres. A trio of stages to the west of Gap are all run twice, with mid-day service in the city separating the two loops.
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