The team that has dominated the World Rally Championship in recent years got off to a brilliant start to its campaign by immediately securing a one-two-three finish at the season-opening round.
Oliver Solberg, who stepped into Kalle Rovanperä’s shoes, showed straight away that the shoe size was, so to speak, a perfect fit for him, as he claimed a convincing victory.
Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier – who has won Rally Monte Carlo no fewer than ten times previously in his career – completed the top three in second and third place respectively.
But the one-two-three did not come easily. Each of the leading drivers had their own moments when, with worse luck, a good result could have slipped away like water off a duck’s back.
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala had to follow the drama from the sidelines, and at times it was not very pleasant.
“It’s certainly not very easy to watch, I can tell you that,” Latvala laughed.
“Because all of these guys had their own moments. The drivers don’t get split times, so they don’t know what kind of pace they’re going,” Latvala continued.
On several occasions, Latvala found himself thinking that the drivers should ease off the throttle a little. For example, rally winner Solberg slid spectacularly off the road but escaped with nothing more than a scare – and on top of that still set the fastest time on the very same special stage.
“You can see the split times all the time, but you can’t tell these guys that “slow down now, everything is going just fine”,” Latvala chuckled.
Latvala is still the most experienced driver in the World Rally Championship, but he never managed to win Rally Monte Carlo during his career. One Sébastien Ogier took that opportunity away from him.
“I never won this rally, but I finished second when the guy sitting next to me here won it back then,” Latvala said, referring to Ogier.
“This is the kind of rally where you always need a bit of luck to win,” Latvala added.
