Monte Carlo Rally


The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco.
From its inception in 1911 by Prince Albert I, the rally was intended to demonstrate improvements and innovations in automobiles, and promote Monaco as a tourist resort on the Mediterranean shore. Before the format changed in 1997, the event was a “concentration rally” in which competitors would set off from various starting points around Europe and drive to Monaco, where the rally would continue to a set of special stages.
The rally now takes place along the hills of the French Riviera and southeast France. In 2026, for the first time since the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally, the event returned to within the borders of Monaco for a Super Special Stage.
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History

1911 beginnings

In 1909, an association named Sport Automobile et Vélocipédique de Monaco started planning a car rally at the behest of Albert I, Prince of Monaco. The Monte Carlo Rally was to start at points all over Europe and converge on Monte Carlo. In January 1911, 23 cars set out from 11 different locations, and Henri Rougier was among the nine who left Paris to cover a route. The event was won by Rougier in a Turcat-Méry 25 Hp. The rally comprised both driving and then somewhat arbitrary judging based on the elegance of the car, passenger comfort and the condition in which it arrived in the principality. The outcry of scandal when the results were published changed nothing, so Rougier was proclaimed the first winner.
Following the Second World War, works or works-supported teams became more and more important. From 1949 onwards, there was a special Team prize. First winners were the three Allards of Potter, Godsall and Imhof. Simca, Delahaye, Sunbeam-Talbot and Jaguar were subsequent winners. Sydney Allard – as the first and only winner driving his own car – was driving a "works" car in 1952, but Gatsonides also participated in a factory prepared Ford Zephyr in 1953, a year that saw no fewer than eight factory backed Sunbeam-Talbots.

1966 controversy

The 1966 event was the most controversial in the history of the Rally. The first four finishers, driving three Mini-Coopers, Timo Mäkinen, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk, and Roger Clark's 4th-placed Ford Cortina were all disqualified because they used non-dipping single filament quartz iodine bulbs in their headlamps, in place of the standard double filament dipping glass bulbs, which are fitted to the series production version of each models sold to the public. This elevated Pauli Toivonen into first place overall. Toivonen himself found the situation so embarrassing that he refused to accept his award. Rosemary Smith was also disqualified from sixth place, after winning the Coupe des Dames, the ladies' class. In all, ten cars were disqualified. Teams threatened to boycott the event. The headline in Motor Sport read "The Monte Carlo Fiasco".

Recent history

From 1973 to 2008, the rally was held in January as the first event of the FIA World Rally Championship. Between 2009 [Intercontinental Rally Challenge season|2009] and 2011, it was the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge programme, a championship for N/A 4WD cars, before returning to the WRC championship season again in 2012. As recently as 1991, competitors were able to choose their starting points from approximately five venues roughly equidistant from Monte Carlo itself.
With often varying conditions at each starting point, this event places a big emphasis on tyre choices, as a driver has to balance the need for grip on ice and snow with the need for grip on dry tarmac. For the driver, this is often a difficult choice as the tyres that work well on snow and ice normally perform poorly on dry tarmac.
The Automobile Club de Monaco confirmed on 19 July 2010 that the 79th Monte Carlo Rally would form the opening round of the new Intercontinental Rally Challenge season. To mark the centenary of the event, the Automobile Club de Monaco also confirmed that Glasgow, Barcelona, Warsaw and Marrakesh were selected as start points for the rally.

Col de Turini

This rally features one of the most famous special stages in the world. The stage is run from La Bollène-Vésubie to Sospel, or the other way around, over a steep and tight mountain road with many hairpin turns. On this 31 km route it passes over the Col de Turini, a mountain pass road which normally has ice and/or snow on sections of it at that time of the year. Spectators also throw snow on the road—in 2005, Marcus Grönholm and Petter Solberg both ripped a wheel off their cars when they skidded on snow probably placed there by spectators, and crashed into a wall. Grönholm went on to finish fifth, but Solberg was forced to retire as the damage to his car was extensive. In the same event, Sébastien Loeb set one of the fastest times in the modern era, with 21 minutes 40 seconds.
Sospel has an elevation of 479 m and the D70 has a maximum elevation of 1603 m, for an average gradient of 6.7%. The Turini is also driven at night, with thousands of fans watching the "Night of Turini", also known as the "Night of the Long Knives" due to the strong high beam lights cutting through the night. In the 2007 edition of the rally, the Turini was not used, but it returned for the 2008 route. For both the 2009 and 2010 event the stage was run at night and shown live on Eurosport.

The event as part of FIA Championships: ERC, WRC and IRC

From its introduction in 1953 to 1972, the Rallye was part of the European Rally Championship, except in 1968 and 1969. From 1973 to 2008, the rally was held in January as the first event of the FIA World Rally Championship. Between 2009 and 2011, it was the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge programme, a championship for N/A 4WD cars, before returning to the WRC championship season again in 2012. As recently as 1991, competitors were able to choose their starting points from approximately five venues roughly equidistant from Monte Carlo itself.

Past winners of the event, including second and third places

2020–

  • † – Event was shortened after stages were cancelled.

Multiple winners

Year in italic was not WRC event
WinsDriverYears won
10 Sébastien Ogier

Related events

The Monte Carlo Historic Rally is a classic regularity rally held annually since 1998. The event currently takes place one week after the contemporary rally, and is open for car models from the 1960s through the early 1980s that participated in earlier editions of the original race. Unlike the contemporary rally it's still a concentration rally with multiple departures throughout Europe.
The Classic Monte-Carlo Classic Rally was a classic touring rally held annually from 2017 to 2022. It took place at the same time as the historic rally, and was open to cars from the 1910s through the early 1960s.
The Monte Carlo E-Rally is a regularity rally for alternative fuel vehicles, held annually under different names from 1995 to 1999 and later since 2005. It currently takes place in late October as part of the FIA ecoRally Cup.