Leb’s legendary victory at the Monte Carlo Rally

In the battle of the titans with Sebastian Ozier, Leb clinched his first WRC win in almost 3.5 years, at the 2018 Rally Spain, which he had won with Citroen at the time. In 2018, M-Sport also celebrated its last win with the then Ford Fiesta WRC – at the Welsh Rally.

Today’s final day of racing started with Ozier at the front with a big lead (21 seconds), who expanded to 24.6” after the two morning specials in favor of the eight-time champion with the Toyota Yaris Rally1.

Leb and Ozier enjoyed it, the former pushing without much risk and the latter with the luxury of a conservative rhythm. However, on the penultimate stage of 19.37 km, Ozier suffered a bump on the left front wheel, losing 34 seconds to Leb and the lead.

The M-Sport Champion and his new co-driver Isabel Galmis kept their cool and safely finished the final Power Stage with a lead of 10.5 seconds. Ozier was quicker but received a 10” penalty for an early start – without this penalty the difference between the two would be just 1.5 seconds.

Leb emerged victorious from the shock duel between the two French legends of the World Rally Championship, which lasted from Thursday night (January 20) until noon today. It was the nine-time champion’s 8th victory in the “backyard” match between the two.

It was also the first female WRC win in almost two and a half decades – the last winner being Fabrice Pons in Piero Liatti’s Subaru Impreza WRC, right at the same race in 1997.

Craig Brin was on the podium with the other Ford Puma Rally1, finding his footprints and car settings from Saturday morning – but also taking advantage of Hyundai’s myriad issues with the new i20 N Rally1. It was the Irishman’s fourth consecutive podium after the previous three with Hyundai last year.

With Hyundai’s Thunder Neville and Ott Tanak struggling on Saturday, but also gradually finding the adjustments they wanted from Saturday afternoon, Toyota’s Cala Rovanpera climbed to 4th place overall – along with the maximum 5 points of victory in the power stage.

The remaining 4-3-2-1 points from the final special went to Elfin Evans, Neville, Leb and Ozier. Evans retired after a mistake in the 11th qualifying round on Saturday, dropping out of the top 20 and his only harvest were those 4 Power Stage points. His only consolation for the title shot is that Neville doesn’t leave Monte with excessive points (11), let alone Tanak. However, Rovanpera leaves with 17 overall.

With the numerous problems caused by his broken suspension on Saturday afternoon, Neville eventually finished 6th behind M-Sport Ford’s Gus Greensmith who also had problems with the Puma Rally1 hybrid system yesterday. However, the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 showed its speed by winning the 15th special stage with Neville.

On the contrary, the problem of exhaust fumes in Oliver Solmberg’s cabin turned out to be quite serious as Hyundai, after the dizziness and chest pains experienced yesterday by the Norwegian and his co-driver Eliot Edmonson, decided to withdraw them from the race today.