A huge crash, beautiful Czech placings or the return of a legend: what did the Monte-Carlo Rally bring?

A spectacular duel of the greats, great placing of the Czechs, but also one very scary accident. The opening round of the season brought many things, Sébastien Loeb and his co-driver broke more records! So how did the Monte-Carlo Rally turn out?

Sébastien Loeb won the season opener. The legendary Frenchman returned to the WRC after a one-year break (he last drove only partial events in 2020) and dominated the Monte-Carlo Rally at the age of 47.

It should be noted Loeb competed in the Dakar Rally until recently. However, in the first race of the new year, he rode to victory on the final stage, beating eight-time champion and reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier.

The battle of the legends was thus dominated by Loeb, with his most serious rival for the overall championship, Frenchman Ogier, 10.5 seconds behind the winner of this rally. However, the overall result was also greatly affected by the tyre puncture Ogier suffered in the penultimate stage.

However, as the finish approached, luck was on Loeb’s side. In any case, Loeb showed in this rally why he is a nine-time World Champion and the most successful driver in WRC history.

It should be noted that he was accompanied by a woman in the co-pilot’s seat at Monte-Carlo – Isabelle Galmiche. Loeb thus took his jubilee and record 80th victory. It should also be noted that it hasn’t happened in twenty-five years that a woman has won the WRC category!

Loeb also drove to his eighth overall victory in Monte-Carlo, becoming the oldest man ever to win a WRC event!

Craig Breen (M-Sport Ford – ed.) finished third overall, one minute and 39 seconds behind the winner of the rally. Fourth place was finally defended by the young and promising Finn Kalle Rovanperä.

Gus Greensmith, who took his first stage win in the seventh stage, is fifth with a loss of about 6 and a half minutes.

Our legionnaires also recorded very nice placings in Monte-Carlo. Erik Cais finished a superb second place in the WRC 2 category, but was 55 seconds behind the winner Andreas Mikkelsen. In the overall standings, he then climbed into the top ten, defending his ninth place!

Another Czech, Jan Černý, also finished second in the WRC 3 class and is now twenty-third in the overall standings.

Several drivers failed to finish the Monte-Carlo Rally, with the most serious accident undoubtedly suffered by Adrien Formaux, driver of the M-Sport Ford Puma team. He and his co-driver are thankfully in the post, but you can see for yourself just how scary the accident was.

Apart from him, however, Estonian Ott Tänak and Oliver Solberg (both Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT) also failed to finish the opening act of the 2022 season.

The second race of the season, the amazing Swedish Rally, which is indeed full of snow stages, is scheduled for February 24-27.

Sources: WRC, Twitter, M-Sport Ford Puma