2020 Monte Carlo Rally

2020 Monte Carlo Rally 88e Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo
Round 1 of 7 in the 2020 World Rally Championship Next event →
The Monte Carlo Rally is run on a mixture of tarmac and snow stages.
Host country	Monaco[a]
Rally base	Gap, Hautes-Alpes
Dates run	23 – 26 January 2020
Start location	Quai Albert, Monaco
Finish location	Casino Square, Monaco
Stages	16 (304.28 km; 189.07 miles)[1]
Stage surface	Tarmac and snow
Transport distance	1,201.36 km (746.49 miles)
Overall distance	1,505.64 km (935.56 miles)
Statistics
Crews registered	88
Crews	85 at start, 73 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT 3:10:57.6
Power Stage winner	Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT 9:39.0
Support category results
WRC-2 winner	Mads Østberg Torstein Eriksen PH-Sport 3:25:19.4
WRC-3 winner	Eric Camilli François-Xavier Buresi 3:24:39.8

The 2020 Monte Carlo Rally (also known as the 88^e Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 23 and 26 January 2020.^[2] It marked the eighty-eighth running of the Monte Carlo Rally, and was the first round of the 2020 World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and World Rally Championship-3. The 2020 event was based in the town of Gap in the Hautes-Alpes department of France and consisted of sixteen special stages. The rally covered a total competitive distance of 304.28 km (189.07 mi).^[1]

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were the defending rally winners.^[3] The Citroën World Rally Team, the team they drove for in 2019, were the reigning manufacturers' winners, but were not defending their title after parent company Citroën withdrew from the sport.^[4] Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson were the defending winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but were not defending their WRC-2 title as they joined the WRC category in 2020.^[5][b] In the World Rally Championship-3 category, French privateers Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud were the reigning rally winners.^[5][c]

Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul were the overall winners of the rally, winning the Monte Carlo rally for the first time. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, were the manufacturers' winners.^[6] Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen were the winners in the WRC-2 category, while Eric Camilli and François-Xavier Buresi were the winners in the WRC-3 category.^[7]

The following crews were entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, its support categories, the World Rally Championship-2 and World Rally Championship-3, and privateer entries that were not registered to score points in any championship. A total of eighty-eight entries were received, with eleven crews entered in World Rally Cars, five crews entered Group R5 cars in the World Rally Championship-2 and a further thirteen crews entered Group R5 cars in the World Rally Championship-3.

No.	Driver	Co-Driver	Entrant	Car	Tyre
World Rally Championship entries
3	Teemu Suninen	Jarmo Lehtinen	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
4	Esapekka Lappi	Janne Ferm	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
8	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
9	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
11	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
17	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
18	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
33	Elfyn Evans	Scott Martin	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
40	Deividas Jocius	Mindaugas Varža	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
44	Gus Greensmith	Elliott Edmondson	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
69	Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
World Rally Championship-2 entries
20	Mads Østberg	Torstein Eriksen	PH-Sport[d]	Citroën C3 R5	M
21	Nikolay Gryazin	Yaroslav Fedorov	Hyundai Motorsport N[e]	Hyundai NG i20 R5	P
22	Ole Christian Veiby	Jonas Andersson	Hyundai Motorsport N[e]	Hyundai NG i20 R5	P
23	Adrien Fourmaux	Renaud Jamoul	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	M
24	Rhys Yates	James Morgan	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	M
World Rally Championship-3 entries
25	Paulo Nobre	Gabriel Morales	Paulo Nobre[f]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
26	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	Yoann Bonato[g]	Citroën C3 R5	M
27	Eric Camilli	François-Xavier Buresi	Eric Camilli[h]	Citroën C3 R5	M
28	Nicolas Ciamin	Yannick Roche	Nicolas Ciamin[i]	Citroën C3 R5	M
29	"Pedro"[j]	Emmanuele Baldaccini	"Pedro"[k]	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	P
30	Grégoire Munster	Louis Louka	Grégoire Munster	Škoda Fabia R5	P
31	Yohan Rossel	Benoît Fulcrand	PH-Sport[d]	Citroën C3 R5	M
32	Stéphane Sarrazin	Kévin Parent	Stéphane Sarrazin[l]	Hyundai NG i20 R5	P
34	Umberto Scandola	Guido D'Amore	Umberto Scandola	Hyundai NG i20 R5	M
35	Andrea Nucita	Bernardo Di Caro	Andrea Nucita	Hyundai NG i20 R5	P
36	Miguel Díaz-Aboitiz	Diego Sanjuan De Eusebio	Miguel Díaz-Aboitiz	Škoda Fabia R5	P
37	Enrico Brazzoli	Maurizio Barone	Enrico Brazzoli	Škoda Fabia R5	P
38	Pepe Lopéz	Borja Rozada	Pepe Lopéz[m]	Citroën C3 R5	P
Other major entries
41	Oliver Solberg	Aaron Johnston	Oliver Solberg[n]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	P
Source:[8]

The route for the 2020 rally features a total of 304.28 km (189.07 mi) in competitive kilometres,^[1] which is 19.55 km (12.15 mi) shorter than the route that was used in the 2019 event.^[9] The 2020 route features substantial revisions to the route used in 2019, with the addition of the Malijal — Puimichel, Curbans — Venterol and St. Clement-sur-Durance — Freissinieres stages. The Bayons — Bréziers stage returned to the rally after being absent in 2019, while the Valdrôme — Sigottier and Roussieux — Laborel stages were removed from the itinerary.

All dates and times are CET (UTC+1).

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took an early lead on Thursday evening, but Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul moved into the lead at the end of the second stage.^[10] The lead changed hands several times throughout the opening leg; Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin took the lead on the first morning before Ogier and Ingrassia consolidated their position by the end of the leg.^[11] Defending World Champions Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja suffered a high-speed crash on the first pass through the St. Clement-sur-Durance — Freissinieres stage. Their Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC flew off a 40-metre high cliff at 180 km/h (111.8 mph) and rolled end-over-end through a series of trees before landing on the road below. Both Tänak and Järveoja walked away uninjured.^[12] Rally leaders changed several times throughout the second leg, with Evans and Martin eventually establishing a lead over teammates Ogier and Ingrassia.^[13] The third leg saw Neuville and Gilsoul re-emerge as the leaders, winning all four stages to claim their first win in Monte Carlo.^[6] This saw them take twenty-five points for the outright win and five bonus points for winning the Power Stage. Ogier and Ingrassia passed Evans and Martin to finish the Power Stage in second place, only a few thousandths of a second behind Neuville and Gilsoul.

Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksenled the WRC-2 category going into Friday, but a puncture cost him the lead.^[14] Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson then took over the lead until later they also suffered a puncture, which handed the lead back to Østberg and Eriksen.^[15] The Norwegian crew extended their lead on Saturday,^[16] and eventually won the class.^[7]

Eric Camilli and François-Xavier Buresi held a 21-second lead over Stéphane Sarrazin and Kévin Parent by the end of Thursday night.^[14] Friday's complicated conditions caught out several crews, including those of Sarrazin and Parent, Paulo Nobre and Gabriel Morales, and Umberto Scandola and Guido D'Amore.^[15] Camilli and Buresi comfortably won the category after a perfect weekend.^[16][7]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2020 Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo.

• Official website (in French and English)
• 2020 Monte Carlo Rally at ewrc-results.com
• The official website of the World Rally Championship