Solberg dominates ‘proper Monte’ to claim sensational win

Oliver Solberg outlined his World Rally Championship credentials with a stunning Rally Monte Carlo victory in one of the most challenging season openers in recent memory.

Toyota’s new signing defied expectations in extreme snow and icy conditions to deliver an emphatic victory, beating his more experienced Toyota team-mates Elfyn Evans [+51.8s] and reigning nine-time world champion and 10-time Monte Carlo winner Sebastien Ogier [+1m10.4s]. In doing so, 24-year-old Solberg became the youngest winner of the event in the WRC era and the first Solberg to triumph in Monte Carlo.

“I don’t understand it at the moment. It’s another emotional day,” said Solberg after claiming a second career WRC win following his win in Estonia last year.

“The most difficult rally I’ve done in my life. It’s my first rally on tarmac for me in the car and here we are winning the thing. I just want to say a big thank you to Toyota for the trust and the belief. The teamwork has been exceptional.”

Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson stormed into the rally lead on a dramatic Thursday night. The pair tamed incredibly difficult snowy conditions to win stage two by a staggering 31.1s from Evans to overtake the Welshman, who had led after the opening stage.

Equipped with a 44.2s lead heading into Friday after stage three was red-flagged for safety reasons, Solberg continued to deliver stunning pace in the snow and ice to extend his lead to more than a minute after stage four. A slow puncture in the next test reduced his advantage over Evans to 43.5s, before the Swede responded in stage six with a third stage win to restore his advantage.

Solberg survived a heart in the mouth moment in stage 12 when his GR Yaris was caught out by ice and slid off the road and through a fence. Luckily, he was able to spin the car around and rejoin the stage. Such was his pace, the moment failed to derail him from winning the stage by 1.9s from Evans.

The snow and ice continued to provide the most intense challenge for the crews on Sunday. Solberg was caught out twice, losing time in moments, but managed to hold firm to claim a remarkable win. Evans did, however, beat Solberg by 6.5s to win the Power Stage.

Solberg’s team-mates Evans and Ogier struggled to consistently match his pace – albeit at times they were disadvantaged by road order through Thursday and Friday. Ogier particularly was out of sorts with his complaints largely aimed at the Hankook winter tyre, which the majority of crews couldn’t trust to clear the slush sufficiently from the road. Ogier struggled to recover from losing more than a minute in stage two, having been first to tackle the snow.

Toyota claimed every stage until Hyundai finally got off the mark when Adrien Fourmaux won the super special held on a section of the Monaco GP circuit on Saturday night. The Frenchman had an eventful run up until that point, which included a handbrake failure and a fuel pump issue and a wild spin in stage 12.

All three Hyundai drivers found the going tough on the snow and ice, struggling to trust the tyre package underneath them. Fourmaux had been holding fifth position behind team-mate Thierry Neuville until the latter slid off into a ditch in stage nine that cost three minutes.

Fourmaux impressed through Sunday, setting the fastest time in the penultimate stage before going on to claim fourth [+3m57.1s]. Neuville had to settle for fifth [+4m30.3s] after losing two minutes to a wheel change at the start of stage 15. The third Hyundai, driven by Hayden Paddon on his return to the WRC top flight since 2018, came home in 11th. The New Zealander was running inside the top 10 until an off in stage 12 that cost six minutes as fans successfully pushed the car back on the road. Paddon finished the rally in 10th.

WRC2 runner Leo Rossel dominated the class to take the victory coming home in sixth ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, who lost time to punctures and self-inflicted power steering issue on Friday.

M-Sport-Ford’s run of scoring manufacture points in every event since Monte Carlo 2002 came to an end as Josh McErlean, Rally1 debutant Jon Armstrong and Gregoire Munster all failed to reach the finish. Armstrong had turned heads running as high as third on Thursday night and sitting in a deserved sixth until an off 0.6km into the penultimate stage.

McErlean endured a rally to forget, retiring three times from the four days, while Munster was derailed by a power steering issue and punctures before a technical issue with his Puma forced the Luxembourger to retire from eighth.

We want to hear from you!

– The Autosport.com Team