Ten Rally1 vehicles will cross the beginning ramp at On line casino Sq. on Thursday, with half of them belonging to the reigning producers’ champion.
Toyota fields 5 GR Yaris Rally1s on the Monte, with Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä and part-timer Sébastien Ogier all scoring producers’ factors. Takamoto Katsuta is locked in for an additional full season however received’t rating for his group on spherical one, whereas WRC2 champion Sami Pajari steps up for a full Rally1 marketing campaign, registered for the all-new Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville is the star of the present nonetheless, flexing the #1 on the aspect of his automobile for the primary time in recognition of his world title in 2024. He’ll be the primary onto the phases on Thursday night time and Friday, flanked by his two team-mates Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux who makes his WRC debut for Hyundai.
M-Sport Ford is operating two Pumas within the principality: one for incumbent Grégoire Munster and one for beginner Josh McErlean.
WRC2
The massive favourite for WRC2 victory this week is Yohan Rossel (Citroën). A title contender final yr, Rossel has scored class wins on the Monte in every of the previous two seasons – albeith solely after Nikolay Gryazin beat him on the street in 2023 earlier than a penalty later dumped him behind.
Gryazin (Škoda) was initially proven as entered into WRC2 erroneously on the entry listing. Although he hasn’t nominated himself for factors, he’s nonetheless a contender to be the outright quickest Rally2 automobile given his previous type right here.
The remainder of the sphere options loads of wildcards who may spring a shock.
Roberto Daprà, Maxime Potty and Matthieu Margaillan are amongst these driving a Fabia RS Rally2, however a lot are C3-mounted together with Yohan Rossel’s youthful brother Léo, Jan Černý and the Iron Lynx/Dames entrants of Pablo Sarrazin and Sarah Rumeau.
