The WRC resumes this week, just eight weeks after 2025’s season finale in Saudi Arabia, with the Monte Carlo Rally officially beginning on Thursday afternoon.
But Wednesday’s 2.6-mile shakedown stage offered crews the opportunity to settle back into a rhythm before four challenging days of rallying in Monaco and the south of France.
Conditions on the test – held near host city Gap – were dry, but snow and ice is tipped to feature throughout the rally weekend and create a classic Monte challenge.
As a result, Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux experimented with studded tires on their i20s on shakedown, while the majority went for either the super softs or a cross of super softs and winter compound Hankooks.
Fourmaux was only ninth fastest as a result, while Neuville was just 14th as he failed to complete his second run after he hit a bank, leaving the front-right wheel hanging off his car. From video footage, he appeared to have a problem even before the impact though.
That wasn’t the ideal start for the 2024 world champion, but things were far rosier for reigning manufacturers’ champion Toyota as it locked out the top-five places.
Katsuta was the quickest overall, setting a time of 2m31.8s on his first run that wouldn’t be bettered throughout the three-hour session.
“New season, fresh mind, I’ll just try my best to deliver the results,” Katsuta said. “This year is quite a big year for me and I will try everything I can to do things in a bit more of a clever way than last year. I’m happy and really confident.”
Katsuta’s time was 1.3s better than what reigning world champion and 10-time Monte Carlo winner Sébastien Ogier could manage, but Ogier was another 1.3s up the road from Toyota’s new signing Oliver Solberg.
‘[I’m] happy to be here like always,” Ogier said. “Monte Carlo is a special place. Sunshine today [but that] may be the last of the week, so let’s see what happens.”
Elfyn Evans was fourth fastest in his GR Yaris, six tenths shy of Solberg and 3.2s off the ultimate pace, with Sami Pajari rounding out the top five on shakedown just a tenth south of Evans’ effort.
“[It’s a] typical Monte ahead I think,” predicted Evans. “Nobody’s really sure exactly what to expect, and it looks like a particularly challenging one I would say. A big weekend ahead for everyone.”
Josh McErlean was the quickest of the M-Sport Ford runners, beating new team-mate Jon Armstrong by half a second.
Grégoire Munster makes a one-off appearance in another Puma Rally1, and he was eighth fastest: 1.1s adrift of McErlean.
Munster's preparation for Monte was compromised by competing on the Dakar
“We just want to enjoy it, give it our best,” Munster said. “For sure it would’ve been more ideal with testing, there’s some things we need to adjust already, but just happy to be here and have fun.”
On his first top-line WRC start in eight years, Hayden Paddon was 10th on the shakedown timesheets – surviving a moment on his first pass of the stage when he locked up on gravel and nudged the side of a bridge.
“Just a small moment, locking up a little bit on the loose gravel,” the Hyundai driver described. “This is going to be a tough rally – we’re definitely in the deep end but we’ve just got to try and do the best job we can.”
Lancia returns to rallying for the first time in almost 35 years this week, and the new Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale set the pace on its first shakedown stage in the hands of Nikolay Gryazin.
He beat team-mate Yohan Rossel by nine tenths of a second, with Eric Camilli’s Škoda the third-fastest Rally2 machine.
