Ireland’s Craig Breen finished third at the Monte Carlo rally on his Ford debut as Sebastien Loeb took a dramatic win.
Breen’s English team-mate Gus Greensmith was fifth, as Wales’ Elfyn Evans came home 19th after crashing his Toyota on Saturday.
Toyota’s eight-time champion Sebastien Ogier was set to win before a puncture on the penultimate stage let in nine-time champion Loeb on his Ford debut.
The legendary French pair are only competing in selected rallies in 2022.
In an eventful season-opener to the World Rally Championship (WRC), both Ogier and Loeb demonstrated a gulf in class compared to the rest of the field – including British hopes Evans and Greensmith and Ireland’s Breen, all of whom have a chance of winning the title in the WRC’s 50th year.
Ogier, 38, led most of the event, with around 20 seconds between him and Loeb, 47. But on stage 16 Ogier lost more than 30 seconds with a puncture, Loeb eventually triumphing by 10.5 seconds.
Breen was one minute, 40 seconds behind second placed Ogier.
Bad start for Evans as Ford pair celebrate
Last season’s runner-up Evans was keeping pace with Loeb and Ogier early in the rally around the steep climbs near Monaco, briefly leading on Friday.
But Saturday’s crash, in which he slid down a steep bank on a tight right-hand bend, lost him several minutes when spectators could not haul the car back on to the road.
Evans, 33, continued, but was way down the overall order.
In his first full WRC campaign, Breen, 31, was third in the striking M-Sport Puma, which has shown real pace alongside Toyota and the other works rival team Hyundai, who suffered mechanical problems for their drivers Thierry Neuville of Belgium, Sweden’s Oliver Solberg and 2019 champion Ott Tanak from Estonia.
Breen’s consistent driving ensured he finished more than 30 seconds ahead of the late-charging Kalle Rovenpera in another Toyota.
But it was 25-year-old Greensmith who won his first ever WRC stage on stage seven in the Puma, despite finishing a few seconds behind Breen on most of the others, in an encouraging start for the Cumbria-based M-Sport team.
Eventful rally sees heroics
Despite largely dry conditions at a rally famed for cold and snowy weather, several drivers came to grief as the event progressed. Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux suffered a huge crash on Friday, when he destroyed his car barrel-rolling down a steep hill on stage three.
Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta of Toyota was one of many who slid into a ditch on one of the few stretches of road which was covered in snow and ice, as drivers tip-toed through on slick tyres.
In the second-tier WRC2 class England’s Chris Ingram made a stunning comeback in his privateer Skoda Fabia – making up 28 places following gearbox problems on Thursday to finish 14th overall.
The 27-year-old eventually finished seventh in class behind WRC2 winner Andreas Mikkelsen’s Norwegian-entered Skoda.
The next event is Rally Sweden on 24-27 February.
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