The action got underway with three stages on Thursday evening. Seb and Vincent would open the road as the reigning world champions.
Thursday’s evening stages
First up then was SS1 Toudon / Saint-Antonin and Elfyn was setting the pace from new full-time teammate Oliver who was 5.6 seconds behind and Seb a further 6.4 further back. Best of the Hyundai drivers was Adrien who was almost twenty seconds behind Elfyn and in fourth, whilst Jon making his debut in the Puma was in sixth.
Into SS2 Esclangon / Seyne-les-Alpes and this stage had it all to be honest; Snow and ice over a large part of the stage near the top as the road climbed to the top of the col. Seb was really finding it hard to keep his pace high, particularly on the snowy sections in the tight corners. Making it even more tricky was the fact it was still snowing a little as well. Meanwhile behind him Elfyn was able to maintain a higher pace using higher gears and was seriously quick over the champion setting a pace of almost forty seconds faster and ten positions between them. However, there was one driver who even faster and that was Oliver who was a full thirty-one seconds faster than Elfyn, with Jon third fastest. The top three were now Oliver, Elfyn and Jon. Seb lost two positions, falling to fifth overall and a full minute and a quarter away from the new leader.
The final stage then of this first evening of action with SS3 Vaumeilh / Claret 1 and this was a different kind of challenge compared to the first stages. As the first crews made their way through the fog was not too bad, but it was clear that it was getting worse as Seb was fastest from Oliver by seven seconds, yet Elfyn who was only the second car on the road was over twenty-five seconds slower. Jon was one of the drivers who had the worst of the conditions as he went off the road. He would be one of the drivers given a notional time as the stage was red flagged. The onboard cameras would reveal how bad it was as the road was pretty much impossible to see.
Let’s hear from the crews then after these three stages.
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg
“It’s been an absolutely incredible start. The conditions have been crazy: every stage was different; every kilometre was different. Sometimes there was a bit of risk, and sometimes I tried to back off and manage. It’s been challenging but good fun. I have a good feeling in the car and everything is working really with the team. To be in this position is amazing – I never expected it and it was never the goal to come here and be leading the rally. There’s still a lot to learn and I’ll just keep doing my best.”
Elfyn Evans
“We had a good clean start in the first stage this afternoon. The grip was quite low, but I just tried to be as smooth as you can be with a mix of studded and slick tyres on the car, and it went fine. Conditions in SS2 were very bad, with no grip at all, so that wasn’t easy. Then in SS3 I couldn’t even see the road in some places. Overall, we can be reasonably happy with our start but it’s also very frustrating to give away time in a situation like that when you’ve worked so hard to earn it.”
Sébastien Ogier
“It’s been a more-than-challenging start to the rally, and I’m happy to be back in service tonight. On the first stage I was maybe a bit too cautious, but it was still a decent start. The big-time loss came for us on the next stage with the slush on top of the surface, which was just undriveable for us. There was not much we could have done, and it cost us a lot of time. The last stage was also very demanding with the fog, but it looks like we managed to get through better than the others.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“I can’t be very happy with my driving and my stage times so far, but I’m very happy to get through such crazy conditions, with rain and snow and fog – a bit of everything really. The time gap is not ideal and not what I would wanted at this stage, but there is still a long way to go and we know that on this rally, anything can happen. So, I will just keep going and do my best.”
Sami Pajari
“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the start to the season that we wanted tonight. In SS2 we got caught out on an icy bridge, and the left-rear wheel hit the barrier. It’s disappointing but at least both Marko and I are OK. I’m sure that the team will be able to fix the car and we have tonight to reset and come back stronger tomorrow.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“I don’t think I have ever seen as much fog in a stage as I did on SS3 tonight – very tough conditions out there. I struggled with confidence initially; I was able to build that up a bit more throughout the run, but when you don’t have the right feeling it still doesn’t feel good. I put two wheels in the ditch on SS2 to avoid a wall, so I wanted to make it as soft as possible to avoid hitting it. We need to determine what’s going on with the tyres, I don’t understand how we can build and then lose grip so easily.”
01 Round, Rallye Monte-Carlo
21-25 January 2026
Photographer: Dufour Fabien
Wordwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Adrien Fourmaux
“I didn’t have a great feeling on the first stage, but we took some steps to improve that for SS2. The second stage was tricky with the snow – we had a spin but didn’t lose too much time – and then on the third stage we had the fog and the smoke from the fireworks. I had to stop in the middle of the road, and I couldn’t see anything, so I thought the hairpin was already there, but it wasn’t, and I ended up in a field. I had to drive very slowly to recover, and it was just crazy. I hope we can get some time back because of the red flag.”
Hayden Paddon
“I’m happy to get through tonight safely, they were three crazy stages for different reasons. We now need to press the reset button and make some changes to feel at one with the car. At the moment I have no feeling at all. Today was the first time I’ve driven the car in wet conditions, so there’s a lot of exploring to do, and that’s made worse when you’re already struggling, and you don’t want to push the car too much. I’m not one to complain about the fog, but that was extreme – it was the right call to red flag the last stage on safety alone.”
Friday stages
Onto the following morning with the first full day of morning and afternoon stages and first up was SS4 Laborel / Chauvac-Laux-Montaux 1. Oliver mastered the conditions and was fastest again from Thierry who was nineteen seconds behind, whilst Elfyn was third a further six seconds back. Oliver’s lead was now a huge one minute and ten seconds over Elfyn whilst Seb was now a further thirty seconds behind in third. Jon remained the best of the Puma drivers, now holding fifth position.
Next up came SS5 Saint-Nazaire-le-Désert / La Motte-Chalancon 1 and Elfyn would set the pace in this one from Seb and Adrien, whilst the leader saw almost thirty seconds taken from his lead as he suffered a puncture. The gap to Elfyn who still held second overall came down to just under forty-four seconds. We did see a position change as Adrien moved ahead of Jon with the Frenchman now into fifth.
The final stage then of the morning and Oliver was again fastest from Thierry and Adrien. The stage conditions were suiting the Hyundai drivers better meaning they were closer to the pace near the front and even the returning Hayden setting the sixth fastest time. Elfyn was fourth in this one and saw the gap to Oliver go back to over a minute again.
Onto the afternoon stages and SS7 Laborel / Chauvac-Laux-Montaux 2 was first up. Oliver was fastest but by a smaller margin of just under two seconds from Seb whilst Elfyn was third fastest. Clearly the Hyundai drivers really were finding this one tricky as Thierry was almost twenty seconds behind just in this one stage and he was now over two and a half minutes behind the rally leader.
Next up was SS8 Saint-Nazaire-le-Désert / La Motte-Chalancon 2, the penultimate stage of the day and Seb was fastest by sixteen seconds over Elfyn and Oliver third. Seb’s pace reduced the gap to Elfyn to eighteen seconds.
The final stage then of the day, SS9 La-Bâtie-des-Fontes / Aspremont 2. Seb was fastest again from Oliver by a little under ten seconds, whilst Elfyn a further 2.8 seconds back and saw the gap over Seb come down to six and a half seconds. Thierry had a nightmare stage with an off into a ditch and had to have help from the spectators to re-join. He fell behind his teammate Adrien, now a full minute behind and in fifth position. Jon completed the day in sixth position.
Let’s take a look at the top ten at the end of Friday and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Day Two
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg
“It’s been another really incredible day and I’m very happy. The goal was to try and stay consistent and avoid problems. We did have one slow puncture, but the rest has been really good. This afternoon was more about trying to survive. In the first one we could still be fastest, and then when it got dark it was a bit too risky to push. There was also a lot of mud being further back on the road and having to do big cuts in those conditions for the first time with this car. So, there’s still a lot of learning going on, and still a crazy long way to go.”
Elfyn Evans
“We’ve had quite a lot of different conditions again today. It started off pretty icy in the first stage which was tricky, but we got through the morning loop pretty well without too much drama. The afternoon was then quite difficult; there was less ice and snow but more mud on the road and maybe I didn’t attack enough in the muddy cuts. We lost quite a bit of ground to Seb, who’s been doing a great job, so it’s close and exciting for tomorrow. With more difficult conditions to come, it looks like it will be a classic ‘Monte’ until the end.”
Sébastien Ogier
“This morning was tricky again for us with the slush on the road. Today we had two cars making a line for us, but the road was evolving and improving a lot behind us. This afternoon the conditions changed, and we managed to turn it around a bit. We didn’t have to go through any slush, but it was still very challenging with an incredible amount of mud on the road and a lot of water. It was probably getting worse for those behind and we could set some good times. It’s a nice fight now with Elfyn, and exciting for the rest of the rally.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“Today was a bit of a disaster for me unfortunately. This morning we had two punctures, and in the afternoon I was caught out by some slush and then hit a bank and we lost the power steering after that. It was a big job with so many hairpins, but I’ve been training a lot and we managed to get through the day. Still, we have two days to go and I will try to reset and find some positives.”
Sami Pajari
“After the disappointment of yesterday we just want to learn all that we can over the rest of the event. We’ll keep on trying things and maximise what we can. We had super tricky conditions today, with many difficult tyre choices in the different conditions – something I’ve pretty much never experienced before. Steadily the pace has been getting better, but of course there is still room to improve.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Adrien Fourmaux
“We had some issues this afternoon that we had to manage, crucially the handbrake. In all of the hairpin entrances I tried to go as wide as possible to get round them in one go, we had to go into reverse a couple of times which was very quick to engage. We’re in fourth now, so we will be patient and keep our eyes on having a trouble-free day tomorrow, as well as Super Sunday and Power Stage points when they matter most.”
01 Round, Rallye Monte-Carlo
21-25 January 2026
Photographer: Dufour Fabien
Wordwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville
“Unfortunately, we made a mistake on the final stage today; we went into a corner a little bit too fast and got pulled into a ditch with no way out. I think we should have chosen to run the studded tyres, as we had two in the car, because there was a little bit more ice than we initially expected after speaking with our gravel crew. At the moment we’re still fighting with ourselves, but the rally is long, and we still have two days to go. We need to take what we can from here, and that’s all we can do at the moment.”
Hayden Paddon
“Today was another tough day. There were some tricky conditions, particularly on the second pass with some pretty polluted roads. We’re still trying to get fully comfortable in the car while maintaining our position and pushing through – which actually makes it harder to drive. We’re navigating that balance and trying to learn as much as we can about the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car.”
Saturday
The third day of action will see the crews tackle a shorter day of 77km’s over four stages, two of which will be the huge just under 30km stage which open the day and finish the day before the crews head to Monaco for a short blast around the streets.
Who will hold the lead?
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