WRC 2017: New era, same winner, different flavour at Monte Carlo Rally

Sebastien Ogier won the season-opening Rally Monte Carlo yesterday by over two minutes from Jari-Matti Latvala. Just seeing that will make you think that it was yet another rally in which Ogier got the better of everyone including his Volkswagen Motorsport teammate and...oh, wait..this isn't 2016 anymore. Thanks to the added boost of live coverage of stages online for free via Red Bull TV and daily recaps, fans were able to follow the Frenchman adjust to his new surroundings at the M-Sport Ford team as successfully as he could have hoped for.

Ogier's win did not look like a foregone conclusion from the start and the challenges of the rally, coupled with snow, ice, slush and far more powerful cars meant that even the reigning four-time world champion slipped up before claiming his 39th FIA World Rally Championship career win.

But despite dropping down to ninth place early in the rally, Ogier recovered to second to start putting pressure on early leader Thierry Neuville who pushed his i20 WRC too hard and ended up with a puncture.

Kris Meeke, who had been fancied by many to be Ogier's only real challenger this year crashed out, Toyota's Juho Hanninen crashed into a tree, Hyundai's Hayden Paddon crashed out and M-Sport's Ott Tanak suffered late engine issues that robbed him of second place.

It was an eventful rally but with more consistent surfaces and the gravel leg coming up soon Citroen is expected to provide more of a challenge. Hyundai too will be hoping to bounce back after Neuville's disappointment.

All in all it was quite a lot of fun. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that Volkswagen quit after all...