How fired-up Ogier became the WRC's ultimate Monte master

He may only be contesting a part-time campaign in the World Rally Championship these days, but Sebastien Ogier underlined that he's lost none of his speed in the 2023 season opener. Storming to yet another victory on the Monte Carlo Rally, the eight-time world champion rewrote the history books again as Toyota served notice of its intentions with a crushing 1-2

Rally Monte Carlo has inspired many a driver over the years, but perhaps none more so than Sebastien Ogier, who can now call himself the undisputed Monte master after dominating the 2023 World Rally Championship opener.

The 91st running of arguably rallying’s most prestigious event provided the backdrop for the start of Kalle Rovanpera’s title defence. This year has been billed as perhaps one of the closest title fights now Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport boast either world champions or rally winners in their ranks following a wild silly season triggered by Ott Tanak’s move from Hyundai to M-Sport.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.