TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team started the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship with a trio of stage wins in the dark and tricky tests that opened Rallye Monte-Carlo on Thursday evening, with Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier both inside the overall top three.
The season officially began in the usual iconic fashion with the cars driving over the start ramp in Monaco’s Casino Square on Thursday afternoon. From there, the crews drove north to Digne-Les-Bains for an important tyre-fitting zone where they selected their rubber for the upcoming three stages, not knowing the exact conditions they would face in the mountains as darkness fell and temperatures dropped.
Nine-time Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Ogier made a superb start, winning the opening stage by 3.9 seconds ahead of Evans. He went on to win a more slippery second stage too by 0.9s over Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). Grip levels were even less consistent in the third and last stage, where Ogier slid wide in a muddy junction and conceded around 15s.
While Evans dropped time in SS2, he set the fastest time in SS3 to finish the night just 2s from leader Neuville in second overall. Ogier is 10.8s further back in third.
Kalle Rovanperä is sixth overall after setting the third-best time in SS3. Takamoto Katsuta is eighth and Sami Pajari is ninth after taking a safety-first approach as he begins his first full season in Rally1 machinery.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s always an exciting and slightly nerve-wracking start to the season with these Thursday night stages in mixed conditions here at Rallye Monte-Carlo. Watching this third and final stage especially, I felt really lucky that I don’t need to drive in these conditions. Elfyn did a great job in that stage and he’s in a good position tonight. Seb made an excellent start, then had this big moment in SS3 and lost some time, but he’s still very much in the game; 12s is not so much on a rally like the Monte. Kalle was struggling a little bit on the first two stages, but once you get through this opening night and into Friday in the daylight it gets easier. I’m sure he will be fine tomorrow, and Takamoto and Sami too.”Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It was a typical Rallye Monte-Carlo start tonight. It’s not been easy out there but it’s been the same for everyone really. We were just starting to see some frost on the road in places in that last stage, and it’s been a few hours since the route note crews drove through. They’ve done a great job but we’re still finding out things when we get there and it’s not easy like that. Naturally it’s been challenging but I’m happy to be at the end of it. It’s getting colder tonight and we have to see what we face in the morning.”Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s been a pretty difficult start for us tonight. We did not have the pace that we were hoping for and we need to investigate a bit. I didn’t really have these clearer conditions without snow and ice in my testing on the new tyres, and it seems that maybe my natural style is not working so well. So we need to try and find something to use the car and tyres together better. We have managed to do that on this rally before and hopefully we can do so again.”Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It could have been almost a perfect start for us tonight. The first two stages were great but unfortunately this mistake in the last one cost us some time. There was a lot of gravel on the road and I got surprised, and we were lucky to get away with it. But we are still in the race and not too far from the lead, so for sure we will keep trying tomorrow. The conditions will probably not be easy in the morning with a cold night coming and probably some frost and ice on the road.”Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Thursday night at Rallye Monte-Carlo is always an exciting moment. We had tricky stages and very difficult conditions with a bit more mud and dirt coming onto the road than we expected. We also had a small issue on the car from the start but I’m sure the team will be able to sort it for tomorrow. There’s still a long way to go with more tricky stages and conditions ahead of us.”Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“We had really tricky conditions tonight – the last stage was quite frosty – but the Monte is always like this. It’s still gone more or less like we planned or thought it would go. I just wanted to finish the night with the car in one piece and it’s not so easy to find the rhythm when conditions are like this. I could have pushed way more, but if one corner is tricky, you back off for the next one as well. It’s all about the learning and let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
End of day one (Thursday):
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 32m58.8s
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2.0s
- Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +12.8s
- Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +27.0s
- Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +30.0s
- Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +43.9s
- Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +48.8s
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +53.3s
- Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m24.4s
- Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2m16.7s
(Results as of 22:00 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
On Friday, a loop of three stages east and north of Gap is run either side of mid-day service. The opening stage from Saint-Maurice to Saint-Bonnet is run for the first time since 2021, while the subsequent Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes / La Bâtie-Neuve and La Bréole / Selonnet tests remain from last year.
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