Having lost his full-time M-Sport seat for the 2026 World Rally Championship season, Munster was handed Jourdan Serderidis’ Puma for the opening round – part of a deal that saw Munster co-drive for Serderidis at the Dakar Rally.
However the Luxembourg driver’s event was far from straightforward: power-steering loss on SS3 and then two punctures (one he stopped to change) on consecutive stages dropping him as low as 16th overall.
Munster did fight back to eighth by the end of Saturday, but wasn’t able to show what he could do on Sunday as his car stopped prior to SS14.
His mission for the weekend had been to have fun, but also prove his capabilities to other manufacturers and teams.
Going no further: Grégoire Munster
Explaining his retirement, Munster told DirtFish: “On the liaison, suddenly we had an issue one kilometer down. The car just stopped itself. We changed the ECU, checked some connection with the sensor and so on. It restarted for one kilometer but we were already really short on time and it stopped again. So we did some more checks but we ran out of time.
“I thought it was all the same again as last year, road section from Friday,” he added, |but it’s a bit different because the car kind of wants to start, but then dies instantly whereas before, like last year, it didn’t start at all. So it’s another issue, but I think nothing we can do here.”
Munster said it was “a shame” for his rally to end this way.
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating. I mean, it’s a nice opportunity and we had a lot of fun with Louis [Louka, co-driver]. It was the main goal, just enjoy potentially your last kilometers in Rally1. So, we gave it our best.
“We did some fourth, fifth fastest times, had some second fastest splits just behind Oliver [Solberg], who is doing amazing this weekend. So, it was really encouraging and without the issue, it would have been. But what if.”
