[WRC] Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo 2025

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Will we see ogier decide to do another title chase?

I don't know, but I do know he could win another Title if he wanted to.

[EstWRC]

I don't know, but I do know he could win another Title if he wanted to.

yeah he proved that las year not crashing out at all, oh wait...

i wouldnt do any conclusions for the rest of the season based on Monte, you could then say for sure already that Kalle wouldnt win the championship.

[CeskyOndra]

I feel that Tänak did get the points he deserved compared to Neuville.

Tänak 5th place, 58.9 to the winner vs Neuville 6th place and 5:44.2 to the winner.

But as Tänak points out the positive aspect - is a good starting position for Sweden.

If snow falls, starting position is a big aspect - But if it's frozen, it doesn't matter too much.. And ofcourse it won't be snowing because Tanak and Neuville are always unlucky with the weather ;D

[meh]

In general:
* Ogier - good known quality, the King stays
* Evans - seems that he can co-operate with the non-hybrid better
* Fourmaux - for me way better result and performance than expected, first time in the car and beating both champion in the team is quite some statement
* Rovanperä - found the rhythm and setup for Sunday
* Tänak - good pace on Saturday, 5th O/A maybe was not what expected before, but not a disaster either
* Neuville - maybe the most surprising thing was how many mistakes fresh champ made and basically did not have any pace. He was lucky that other retired and gained some positions and valuable points because of that
* Taka - well, guy was sick and there is no point in overanalyzing it
* Pajari - learning, shame for the mistake, but it's part of the learning
* Munster - quite some surprise actually, also congrats for the first-ever stage win, it's some milestone to achieve
* McErlean - collected experience and milage, we should just ignore the result

[deephouse]

Seems like he’s ready to retire and that THIS will be his final season, based on what he said at the end of stage.

He will start just like previous year and if he will won every event he will enter (or being points wise close to the top all the time), he will go for the title. Remember it could be huge story if he would won the title with part-season. It could also mean he would be better than Loeb (I think he already is, since he won titles with different manufacturers).

Also he said in a joke (I think he do think maybe also for real) that Pajari shouldn't be too good, since he want to drive for some time.

Hyundai should step up. I know they'll be getting new car for Sweden, but everytime they show with something new, they step back, so I'm very sceptical about that. Embarassment from both Tanak and Neuville.

[Morte66]

Fourmaux was the big news.

Tanak Saturday afternoon was... a sign of what could happen, but will it happen enough?

Evans: last year there were a lot of rallies where he did about as well as I expected but not quite as well as I hoped. This rally I got both.

Gryazin: last year I picked Pajari on a whim in WRC2, this year I pseudo-randomly selected Gryazin. WRC2 is the only part of my life where I get lucky.

The drone: did get better as the rally went on. Maybe we can give it some time.

The rally: damn good season opener. See you here for Sweden!

[CeskyOndra]

Sweden's competition is going to be huge - Pajari, Sesks and Katsuta starting from behind! All of them are going to be quick.

[doubled1978]

Great Rally!

Big congrats to Ogier, top performance at the hardest rally over so many years, very impressive.
A little bit of a shame there was so much ice on the Turini, it would have been great to see Fourmaux’s tyre gamble play out with 4 x SS on, but in the end they had to all take the same tyre package.
Evans was really good, Fourmaux excellent. Tanak amazing place yesterday…
I feel very sorry for Munster, he drove very well this weekend and showed more speed than I thought he had, let’s hope he can build on that. I suppose the upside is he and Sesks will have good road position in Sweden…

[EstWRC]

In general:
* Ogier - good known quality, the King stays
* Evans - seems that he can co-operate with the non-hybrid better
* Fourmaux - for me way better result and performance than expected, first time in the car and beating both champion in the team is quite some statement
* Rovanperä - found the rhythm and setup for Sunday
* Tänak - good pace on Saturday, 5th O/A maybe was not what expected before, but not a disaster either
* Neuville - maybe the most surprising thing was how many mistakes fresh champ made and basically did not have any pace. He was lucky that other retired and gained some positions and valuable points because of that
* Taka - well, guy was sick and there is no point in overanalyzing it
* Pajari - learning, shame for the mistake, but it's part of the learning
* Munster - quite some surprise actually, also congrats for the first-ever stage win, it's some milestone to achieve
* McErlean - collected experience and milage, we should just ignore the result

ill add mine also then

Ogier - well like you said, he is the king and nothing more to say. Very well managed rally once again, although again two mistakes which coulnd have ended his rally but lucky this time.

Evans - seems indeed that the non-hybrid machine suits also for him better like for Tänak, but he did well in Monte also with the hybrid. Still remains to be seen how it evolves.

Fourmaux - surprise and man of the rally for me but my guess is that he had massive advantage over Tänak and Thierry (and over the rest) with his experience from the test rally and two test days also in different conditions. On Saturday when it clicked for Tänak then he was much slower.

Rovanperä - i said already before the season that he will be rusty and that is what excatly happened but even with this form nice 4th place and on Sunday had great pace already. For me he is still the championship contender nr 1.

Tänak - superb saturday, showed that the talent hasnt gone anywhere and dominated like in the old days. But then again very bad pace on friday and especially today but i think it is all down to the experience with the tyres. He had only one test day and in full soaking rain. He has to stop doing this stupid tyre choices, needs a new race tactic guy or smth. Luckily there is only one choice in sweden, if there would be two then im sure he would choose the second one.

Neuvile - well, seemed like the old Neuville is back again with the stupid mistakes out of nowhere but the surprising thing was that he didnt also have any pace, 0 stage wins for him but like Tänak then he also seems hasnt found the click the with all of the different tyre choices yet.

Taka - shame for te crash, showed amazing pace on saturday but thats often the case with him that founds great speed but then crashes.

Pajari - well, learning curve, part of it. some nice split times on some stages.

Munster - crashed but IMO did still very good. had starting pos advantage and tyre advantage but he used it very well, has taken another step IMO.

Josh - i better not comment

[denkimi]

Sweden's competition is going to be huge - Pajari, Sesks and Katsuta starting from behind! All of them are going to be quick.

So do Tanak and neuville, which could be interesting.