This year’s Monte Carlo Rally forecast promised us the world: snow, ice – and lots of it, for most of the rally.
We’re only at stage three and we’ve already had enough to consider those prayers answered.
It’s been a whirlwind opening day of the 2026 WRC season.
Lancia’s debut derailed immediately
Ever since the first testing footage of the Lancia Ypsolin Rally2 HF Integrale emerged, rally fans around the world have patiently waited for the hours, minutes and seconds to count down to zero. Lancia arrived at the WRC’s season opener to great fanfare, with the big question of whether it would immediately take the fight to Toyota and Škoda.
That fanfare lasted all of 10 minutes. Yohan Rossel struck a rock face and broke the front right corner of his Ypsilon on the very first stage.
One stage later and team-mate Nikolay Gryazin was in trouble, sliding off the road and losing nearly a minute.
Rossel's Monte Carlo lasted less than a stage before it went south
It was a warning shot of what was to come.
The full Monte
Esclangon / Seyne-les-Alpes delivered the full Monte Carlo experience. It started with wet but otherwise fairly consistent conditions, but the further the crews climbed, the greater the challenge became. First the road became slushy, then progressively more icy and snowy. For those further down the order, that presented an opportunity as the road began to clear. But for several it also meant their demise.
One corner claimed three victims: firstly Adrien Fourmaux ran wide on a right-hander and clattered into a barrier, putting him well off-line for the following long left. But the momentum from that impact helped overstate the car and keep him away from the trees and drop down a bank on the outside, instead spinning around and losing only 10s. Those who followed fared worse.
Then Sami Pajari arrived on the scene. Whack. Same barrier, same impact. But the result was different: he destroyed the left-rear suspension on his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, limped to an access road and pulled off.
No such problems for the following car, though. Oliver Solberg flew through and put half a minute on Elfyn Evans and a minute plus on everyone else. Spectacular.
Solberg was utterly spectacular on Thursday
Next through the now-infamous turn? Grégoire Munster. He lost it. Then he saved it. Josh McErlean immediately afterwards? Nope. The rear of the Ford Puma swung wildly, akin to Fourmaux’s trajectory. The problem is he ran out of room to collect it up, fell off the side of the road and into retirement for the night.
If you wanted to package the essence of the Monte into a one-hour window, this was it. Drivers searching desperately for grip, their visibility limited by darkness, and time gaps built in a day that you couldn’t get if you ran Rally Finland for an entire month non-stop.
The necessary red flag
A red flag for fog on the Monte? Really? Utter woke nonsense, surely?
As Hayden Paddon pointed out though, he likes the fog. He appreciates the challenge and relishes the opportunity it gives to make up a bit of time by fully trusting the notes to compensate for what the eyes can’t see.
But this was too much.
We got a sample of it – funnily enough as the DirtFish crew spoke to Hayden – before SS3. It made the footage we shot feel moody and atmospheric – but it certainly wasn’t good for visibility.
Fourmaux’s off into a ditch right before the end of the stage told the story of just how necessary the red flag was: if you’re already backing way off and still crash because you can’t tell the difference between the road and the foliage, it’s not safe to proceed.
Monte’s challenge is in reading the grip and making a judgement call. You can’t do that visibility only extends as far as the hood.
