Summarize

World rally champion Sebastien Ogier celebrated his return to Citroen with a nail-biting Monte Carlo Rally win over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville in a breathtaking end to the WRC season-opener on Sunday. Ogier had led from Friday afternoon, but his advantage over Neuville was never more than 5.8 seconds and down to just 0.4s behind Ogier at the start of the final stage. Neuville went 1.5 seconds ahead at the first split of that final piste, but Ogier hit back to seal his seventh Monte Carlo Rally win and sixth in a row for three different carmakers, by 2.2 seconds. Early leader Ott Tanak salvaged third for Toyota with a fightback through Saturday and Sunday following a puncture Friday afternoon, clawing back to edge Sebastien Loeb on his debut for Hyundai and the Toyotas of Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke, who endured a litany of troubles to emerge sixth ahead of WRC2 Pro winner Gus Greensmith’s Ford Fiesta.