TOKYO, Jan 27, 2025 - (JCN Newswire) - Sebastien Ogier has claimed a record-extending 10th victory on the legendary Rallye Monte-Carlo as TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team scored a one-two finish to launch its 2025 FIA World Rally Championship campaign with a maximum points haul.

Ogier's milestone Monte win crowns TOYOTA GAZOO Racing one-two

The victory is Ogier's third Rallye Monte-Carlo win with TGR-WRT and his second with co-driver Vincent Landais, and brings Toyota's all-time record on the event to six wins.

As usual the rally brought a wide range of changeable conditions during the weekend, with dry asphalt stages in the mountains of the French Alps also featuring sections of ice as well as plenty of mud and gravel being dragged onto the road. It provided a challenging first event for the teams and drivers with the revised technical package for 2025, with the top class of Rally1 cars no longer featuring hybrid units and also running on Hankook tyres for the first time.

Despite these challenges, the battle for victory remained tight throughout the weekend and went down to the very last stage across the iconic Col de Turini on Sunday afternoon. Ogier had eked out a lead of 20.3 seconds over Evans going into the final day, with the Hyundai pair of Adrien Fourmaux and Ott Tanak also close behind, but an early start combined with cold and wet conditions made for a difficult last tyre choice.

Ogier and Evans both took a package of four studded winter tyres plus two supersoft slick tyres, which paid off in the icy first stage prior to sunrise. With the four studded tyres fitted they were around 20s quicker than Fourmaux, but that advantage swung the other way on a drier second stage, where Fourmaux could fit his four slicks and close back to within 4s of Evans and 22.2s of Ogier.

The rally-ending Power Stage featured a true mix of conditions, with a largely dry ascent and descent but with some ice atop the famous Col. In the end, all of the top three drivers opted for a mix of slick and studded tyres and it was Ogier who set the best time, just 0.215s quicker than Evans - who ran wide and brushed a bank on the rapid descent to the finish.

Ogier's win is also his 15th for TGR-WRT, drawing him level with team-mate Kalle Rovanpera and their fellow two-time champion Carlos Sainz as the drivers who have achieved the most WRC victories for Toyota.

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin start their season strongly, also topping the Super Sunday classification to earn five extra bonus points. 1.1s in front of Rovanpera and 1.8s in front of Ogier.

With a different tyre strategy, Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen were consistent across all conditions on the final day and beat Ott Tanak to fourth overall, securing a solid haul of 18 points from a challenging weekend.

Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari built their confidence and pace through the rally. Katsuta won a stage and was third-quickest across Saturday, while Pajari gathered valuable experience on his first Rallye Monte-Carlo in Rally1 machinery. Starting the final day sixth and seventh, both would unfortunately slide off the road in Sunday's first stage.

For more information, visit https://toyotagazooracing.com/wrc/release/2025/rd01-day4/.

Source: Toyota Motor Corporation

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