Last weekend’s Monte Carlo Rally was a fitting opening to the 2021 WRC season, proving that the cream rises to the top, and that the top-end of the sport is a mix of the haves and the have nots.
There was plenty thrown at the event organisers, with COVID curfews resulting in enforced changes to the route, and a shorter than usual overall distance.
But through it all, the World Champion showed why he is just that, taking not only a record breaking 8th Monte Carlo Rally win, but his 50th win in the WRC.
It was a sublime performance from the Frenchman. Early brake problems and then a punctured tyre hampered his progress, but as he has shown countless times, when he needed to wind up the dial, he was more than capable of doing so.
He won from team-mate Elfyn Evans, and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
In fact, it was a complete whitewash from the sport’s two leading manufacturers. Toyota took first, second, fourth and sixth, with Hyundai in third and fifth.
Only Ott Tanak from the sport’s giants didn’t make it to the finish, after puncturing twice on Saturday and running out of spare tyres.
While the big two dominated though, poor old M-Sport had a weekend to forget. After battling to even get to the rally from their UK base, the largely privateer squad was hopeful of a good result to reward their team’s hard work.
It wasn’t to be though. Finland’s Teemu Suninen set the fastest early split times on the first stage, but he didn’t make it to the end, crashing heavily and destroying his Fiesta in the process.
That left the team’s second stringer, Gus Greensmith, with the task of getting a result, and try as he might, the Briton couldn’t come to grips with the tricky conditions and finished a lowly eighth, a massive eight minutes from the lead!
M-Sport have battled to keep their heads above water during COVID times, and without the manufacturer funding or the corporate support to pay leading drivers, they have suffered accordingly.
WRC-winning drivers like Andreas Mikkelsen, Mads Ostberg, Hayden Paddon and Esapekka Lappi are all either driving lesser Rally2 spec machinery, or sitting on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. It’s a sad situation for the sport, and the team.
Still, money makes the world go around, and rallying at WRC level is no different, much to the chagrin of Ford fans all over.
Conditions around Monte Carlo were as unpredictable as ever. Spread out over four days, the rally encountered heavy rain, dry tarmac, black ice and snowy sections through a winter wonderland.
On Sunday’s second stage – which was full tarmac and without snow – black ice became an unexpected problem that many drivers described as the slipperiest conditions they’d ever driven in.
The following test featured full snow conditions, meaning tyre choice became critical, especially as teams were using Pirelli rubber for the first time in 10 years.
The 2mm studs used on the Monte’s snow tyres are a far cry from the 7mm studs on the ice tyres for next month’s Arctic Rally Finland, the WRC’s next round.
A new event will mean a new challenge, and while Ogier proved that he is a man for all seasons in France, you’d be a brave person to bet against a Nordic driver winning in the Arctic.
His team-mate, the Finn Kalle Rovanpera, may start as favourite, where you can again expect the big two to set the pace in a sport that is continually dominated by not just the talent in your locker room, but by the size of your bank account.
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