DOLGELLAU’S Elfyn Evans was happy with his second place finish and a “decent haul pf points” as the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship kicked off in Monte Carlo over the weekend.

Rallye Monte-Carlo was won by his Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier who claimed a record-extending 10th victory at the legendary event, the one-two finish giving them the maximum points haul.

Evans said: “This was a typical Rallye Monte-Carlo, a bit more extreme than in recent years and it was a properly challenging weekend.

“I’m very happy to be here at the end with a decent haul of points.

“Today started off with some very tricky conditions, we made a change at the last moment to take four studded tyres and I wasn’t sure it was the right call.

“In the end it seems there wasn’t a lot between the two choices and we had a pretty thrilling Power Stage to finish: we had a close moment a few corners from the end but thankfully we managed to get away with it.”

The victory is Ogier’s third Rallye Monte-Carlo win with TGR-WRT and brings Toyota’s all-time record on the event to six wins.

As usual the rally brought a wide range of changeable conditions with dry asphalt stages in the mountains of the French Alps also featuring sections of ice as well as mud and gravel.

It provided a challenging first event for the teams and drivers with the revised technical package for 2025, with the top class of Rally1 cars no longer featuring hybrid units and also running on Hankook tyres for the first time.

Despite these challenges, the battle for victory remained tight throughout the weekend and went down to the very last stage across the iconic Col de Turini on Sunday afternoon.

Ogier had eked out a lead of 20.3 seconds over Evans going into the final day, with the Hyundai pair of Adrien Fourmaux and Ott Tänak also close behind, but an early start combined with cold and wet conditions made for a difficult last tyre choice.

Ogier and Evans both took a package of four studded winter tyres plus two supersoft slick tyres, which paid off in the icy first stage prior to sunrise.

With the four studded tyres fitted they were around 20s quicker than Fourmaux, but that advantage swung the other way on a drier second stage, where Fourmaux could fit his four slicks and close back to within 4s of Evans and 22.2s of Ogier.

The rally-ending Power Stage featured a true mix of conditions, with a largely dry ascent and descent but with some ice atop the famous Col.

In the end, all of the top three drivers opted for a mix of slick and studded tyres and it was Ogier who set the best time, just 0.215s quicker than Evans – who ran wide and brushed a bank on the rapid descent to the finish.

Ogier’s win is also his 15th for TGR-WRT, drawing him level with team-mate Kalle Rovanperä and their fellow two-time champion Carlos Sainz as the drivers who have achieved the most WRC victories for Toyota.

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin start their season strongly, also topping the Super Sunday classification to earn five extra bonus points. 1.1s in front of Rovanperä and 1.8s in front of Ogier.