Rallye Monte-Carlo: Day 4 Ogier’s milestone Monte win crowns TOYOTA GAZOO Racing one-two

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Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)

We were able to kick off the 2025 season with Seb’s memorable 10th victory in Monte Carlo.
Up until 2019, Seb had a streak of six consecutive wins in Monte Carlo with various teams. Since joining Toyota in 2020, he has alternated between 2nd and 1st place every other year. Given this pattern, I was certain that he would win this year.
Seb, congratulations on your 10th win in Monte Carlo! I think it’s time for you to break that pattern and win again next year!

Last season was incredibly enjoyable, as we battled with Hyundai all the way to the final stage of the final round. However, that was just how I felt as a rally fan. As a team member, there were many moments that were quite tough throughout the season. This year, I want to make it a season that we can enjoy from the bottom of our hearts also as team members. And I want to experience that feeling again at Rally Japan! I believe Jari-Matti, Juha, all the drivers, all the co-drivers, and everyone in the team will make it happen! And just so you know, this year’s Rally Japan is not the final event…

Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)

“I’m really delighted. We could not really have had a better start to the season than this: we got the maximum 60 points as a team, a one-two-four overall and the 10th victory for Sébastien Ogier on Rallye Monte-Carlo, which is a truly amazing and unique achievement. The conditions were very difficult until the end and the tyre choice was stressful this morning because the road was freezing after the route-note crews had passed through. Unfortunately Sami and Taka went off, and perhaps I should have pushed them to take a safer choice, but this rally was all about the experience for them. With our other drivers it worked out well in the end, so thank you to them. At the same time it was a very entertaining rally and I think we have an exciting season ahead.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“This was a typical Rallye Monte-Carlo, a bit more extreme than in recent years and it was a properly challenging weekend. I’m very happy to be here at the end with a decent haul of points. Today started off with some very tricky conditions, we made a change at the last moment to take four studded tyres and I wasn’t sure it was the right call. In the end it seems there wasn’t a lot between the two choices and we had a pretty thrilling Power Stage to finish: we had a close moment a few corners from the end but thankfully we managed to get away with it.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Rallye Monte-Carlo is always tough and it was especially so this year. For me personally it was a pretty difficult weekend. We didn’t have the result that we wanted or the pace that we wanted but we have to be happy at the end to have got some pretty good points. Today was not a bad day for us: we just tried our best, kept consistent and it paid off. A big thanks to the team, now let’s see what we can do in Sweden.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s amazing to win this rally for the 10th time: it makes me incredibly happy and proud. This rally is the one that gave me the dream to be a rally driver, so if I could pick only one to win in a season, it would always be this one. This year it’s been a huge fight up until the very last stage. We had changing conditions, difficult tyre decisions and pressure right until the end so I’m glad we managed to keep it under control. We definitely had some moments but to win this rally I think you always need a bit of luck too. It’s a perfect start to the year for the team so we couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“This morning in the first stage we knew that the conditions could be quite tricky, but we came to one right-hand corner that was frosty where we didn’t have that information in our pacenotes. We were quite slow going into the corner, but the car went wide and got stuck in a small ditch which we couldn’t get out of. Until then it had been quite a good rally, especially Saturday when the pace was good. It’s a pity but I just need to refocus on the next rally in Sweden and try to do a good job for the team there.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“The approach for today was the same as before and we were not planning to push particularly hard. There was just one surprisingly icy braking point which just caught us out. It was an unfortunate end to our rally, as it been going according to plan until then. On Saturday especially we saw that the times were getting better and the feeling was getting better and the confidence was rising. Everything felt under control so it’s a pity to end the rally like this, but we will try to learn from what happened and look forward to Sweden.”

PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLYE MONTE-CARLO
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h19m06.1s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +18.5s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +26.0s
4 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +54.3s
5 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +59.0s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +5m44.2s
7 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +10m15.1s
8 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) +10m26.8s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +11m40.7s
10 Eric Camilli/Thibault de la Haye (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) +13m14.6s
Retired Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1)
Retired Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1)
(Results as of 14:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 1:
1 Sébastien Ogier 33 points
2 Elfyn Evans 26
3 Adrien Fourmaux 20
4 Kalle Rovanperä 18
5 Ott Tänak 11
6 Thierry Neuville 9
7 Josh McErlean 6
8 Yohan Rossel 4
9 Nikolay Gryazin 2
10 Eric Camilli 1

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 1:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 60 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 36
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 11

What’s next?
Rally Sweden (February 13-16) is the only full winter event of the season held on snow and ice. Metal studs inserted into the tyres bite into the surface to provide grip and allow for some of the highest speeds of the year.

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