A total of 70 crews were accepted into the iconic Monte, from 93 competing pairs that had registered, but not all applicants made it into the competition.
In the premier class, eight Rally1 cars will start: three Toyotas, three Hyundais, and two M-Sport Fords. Elfyn Evans, Sebastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta will compete with Toyota, Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak, and Andreas Mikkelsen with Hyundai, and Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster with Ford Puma.
It’s extremely rare for Finland, as there are no Finnish drivers in the top class. The only Finnish competitors in the rally are Sami Pajari and co-driver Enni Mälkönen, who will compete with Rally2 machinery.
The last time the WRC’s premier class saw no Finnish drivers was in the 1993 Rally Sanremo.
Pajari and Mälkönen will make history as they debut Toyota’s new GR Yaris Rally2 car at the WRC level in Monte. Alongside Pajari, three other drivers will start with Toyota’s new vehicle: Frenchmen Stephane Lefebvre and Bryan Bouffier, and Spaniard Jan Solans, who will also compete for points in the WRC2 category.
The WRC2 class will also include Citroen’s Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin, Hyundai’s Nicolas Ciamin, and Spaniard Pepe Lopez on a Skoda. A total of 22 crews have registered for the class.
Pajari, competing for Printsport in the WRC2 class this year, will not be racing for points in Monte. Like Pajari, Skoda driver Oliver Solberg will compete outside the WRC2 class in the season’s opening rally.
Rally Monte Carlo is scheduled for January 25-28. The competition starts and finishes in Monaco, but the rally’s hub this time is located further north in the city of Gap.
Champion Kalle Rovanperä of Toyota and Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi will start their WRC season from the second round in Sweden in February. Both Finns will compete in only a part of this year’s WRC rallies.
