The Jewel in the Crown Goes to Ogier who smashes the Monte-Carlo Rally Record

It could have been one, two, three on the podium for Toyota in the Monte-Carlo Rally, except for a puncture during Elfyn Evan’s fifth stage which lost the Welsh driver more than 40 seconds to knock him out of contention for second place to eventually finish fourth, still only one minute and 12 seconds off the winner’s pace. That allowed the Belgian Thierry Neuville to spoil the Toyota sweep and capture third place on the podium. Nevertheless Toyota won an incredible 16 of the 18 stages. And the Toyota team winner, Sébastien Ogier broke the record that he so valiantly tried to snatch last year when he was also denied by a puncture. Nine times Sébastien Ogier has won the inaugural round of the world championship. He also has eight world championship titles to his belt being the 2nd most successful World Rally Championship driver, just one world title short of former Citroën WRC teammate Sébastien Loeb (9 titles).