We don’t usually devote a ton of space to rally results, but when we heard Sebastian Ogier had just nabbed his ninth Monte Carlo rally win behind the wheel of a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid, we had to make an exception.
There was a bit of a gap between the French driver’s first win at the world’s most famous rally, which came in 2009, and his second, in 2014. But between 2014 and 2023, Ogier entered the event 10 times and placed first on eight of those occasions. In 2020 and 2022 when he didn’t win, he came home second and was 14 seconds and 11 seconds behind the winner respectively.
That’s an incredible win ratio. Even Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton never managed more than eight wins at any one particular track. But rally fans will be quick to point out that technically, Ogier’s rival, Sebastian Loeb has an even better record, having won two separate events (Rally Catalunya and Rallye Deutschland) nine times and nine WRC Championships to Ogier’s eight.
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Ogier is semi-retired now and only contesting certain events this year, so won’t be able to improve on that last stat. But along with regular drivers Kalle Rovanperä, who took second at this weekend’s Monte, and Elfyn Evans, he is contributing to the Gazoo Racing Team’s chances of securing the Manufacturer’s Championship for the third year running.
This is the second year the Toyota Gazoo WRC team has campaigned the GR Yaris Rally1 hybrid. Designed to meet the new technical regulations that came in in 2022, the all-wheel drive Yaris is powered by a combination of a 1.6-liter turbocharged combustion engine running on fossil-free fuel and a 134 hp (136 PS) electric motor giving a total of 493 hp (500 PS) and 367 lb-ft (500 Nm) of torque.
