The 2020 Rally Monza (also known as ACI Rally Monza 2020) was a

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

event for

rally cars Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sports ...

that was scheduled to hold between 3 and 6 December 2020. It marked the forty-first running of Monza Rally Show and was the final round of the

2020 World Rally Championship The 2020 FIA World Rally Championship was the forty-eighth season of the World Rally Championship, a rallying competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Teams and crews competed in seven rallies for the Li ...

World Rally Championship-2 The FIA WRC2 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after Rally1 class crews. WRC2 is limited to production ...

World Rally Championship-3 The FIA WRC3 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after WRC2 entrants. Entry into WRC3 is limited to cars that ...

. It was also the final round of the Junior World Rally Championship. The event was based in the famous

Autodromo Nazionale di Monza The Monza Circuit ( Italian: ; ) is a race track near the city of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy. Built in 1922, it was the world's third purpose-built motor racing circuit after Brooklands and Indianapolis and the oldest in mainland Euro ...

circuit near

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, where the

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix () is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, motor racing Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been held since 1921 ...

is held. The rally covered a total competitive distance of .

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Eugène Emile Ogier (; born 17 December 1983) is a French Rallying, rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He is currently teamed with co-driver Vincent Landais. He has won 8 List ...

and

Julien Ingrassia Julien Ingrassia (born 26 November 1979) is a retired French people, French rally (sports), rally co-driver. Working with Sébastien Ogier, he became World Rally Champion in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 with Volkswagen Motorsport, 2017 World Rall ...

won the rally. Their team,

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT The Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team is a competitor of the World Rally Championship (WRC) based in Finland, serving as the entry for the car manufacturer Toyota. Its team principal is former WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala and its drivers for ...

, were the manufacturers' rally winners.

Mads Østberg Mads Østberg (born 11 October 1987) is a Norway, Norwegian Rallying, rally driver. His co-driver is Torstein Eriksen. Career Østberg competed in his first rally in 2004. His first World Rally Championship event was the 2006 Swedish Rally, in ...

and Torstein Eriksen were the winners in the WRC-2 category. Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jæger-Amland winners in the WRC-3 category. Tom Kristensson and Henrik Appelskog won the junior class. Ogier and Ingrassia won their seventh world titles, while Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT secured their second consecutive manufacturers' titles. Østberg and Eriksen won the WRC-2 championship, while Toksport WRT claimed the teams' titles. Jari Huttunen and Mikko Lukka became WRC-3 crowned champions. Kristensson and Appelskog sealed junior world titles.

Background

Championship standings prior to the event

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin entered the round with a fourteen-point lead over six-time world champions

and

Thierry Neuville Thierry Jean Neuville ( ; born 16 June 1988) is a Belgian rally driver who is competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. During his career, he has finished as runner-up five times (2013, 2016–2019) and achieved his maiden ...

and

Nicolas Gilsoul Nicolas Gilsoul (born 5 February 1982) is a Belgian rally co-driver. He is the former co-driver for Thierry Neuville and the current co-driver for Pierre-Louis Loubet.

are third, a further ten points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, defending manufacturers' champions Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held a seven-point lead over

, following by M-Sport Ford WRT. In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Pontus Tidemand and Patrick Barth held an eighteen-point lead ahead of

and Torstein Eriksen in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with Adrien Fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul in third. In the manufacturer' championship, Toksport WRT led Hyundai Motorsport N by forty-five points. M-Sport Ford WRT sit in third, a further fourteen points behind. In the World Rally Championship-3 standings, Marco Bulacia Wilkinson led Jari Huttunen by two points in the drivers' standing, with Kajetan Kajetanowicz in third. The co-drivers' standing was led by Mikko Lukka. Maciek Szczepaniak and Marcelo Der Ohannesian hold second and third respectively. In the Junior championship, Mārtiņš Sesks and Renars Francis led Tom Kristensson and Joakim Sjöberg by eight points.

Sami Pajari Sami Pajari (; born 1 December 2001) is a Finnish professional rallying, rally driver. He won the Junior WRC Championship in 2021 Junior WRC Championship, 2021. Pajari then competed in the 2024 WRC2 Championship, which he won. Results WRC res ...

and Marko Salminen were third, four points further back. In the Nations' championships,

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

held an eight-point lead over

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, with

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

in third.

Schedule changes and event inclusion

The event was included in the

as the final round of the season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Entry list

The following crews entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, its support categories, the World Rally Championship-2, World Rally Championship-3, and Junior World Rally Championship and

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

entries that were not registered to score points in any championship. Ninety-five entries were received, with eleven crews entered World Rally Cars, four Group R5 cars entered in the World Rally Championship-2 and thirteen in the World Rally Championship-3. A further six crews entered in the Junior World Rally Championship in Ford Fiesta R2s.

Route

The first and last day of action, including the

Power Stage The Power Stage (abbreviated as PS) is a Special stage (rallying), special stage that usually runs as the final stage of a rally in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and European Rally Championship (ERC). Additional championship points are avail ...

, followed Monza Rally Show to take place in stages inside the

, while the second leg was focused on public stages north of

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

in the foothills of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

Itinerary

All dates and times were CEST (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

Report

World Rally Cars

Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio held a narrow lead going onto Saturday, despite a ten-second time penalty for cutting a

chicane A chicane () is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is ...

. Teammate

and

Nicolas Gilsoul Nicolas Gilsoul (born 5 February 1982) is a Belgian rally co-driver. He is the former co-driver for Thierry Neuville and the current co-driver for Pierre-Louis Loubet.

's title hope was washed away as their i20 was drawn out when the engine expired in heavy standing water after damaging their right-front suspension.

Teemu Suninen Teemu Suninen (; born 1 February 1994) is a Finnish rally driver. He currently competes part-time for the Hyundai team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). Rally career Suninen won the WRC-3 class in the 2014 Rally Finland and 2015 Rally ...

and

Jarmo Lehtinen Jarmo Lehtinen (born 3 January 1969) is a rally co-driver from Finland. He was the co-driver to former World Rally Championship driver Mikko Hirvonen and have scored 15 WRC wins competing under Ford World Rally Team and Citroën Total. As o ...

retired from the rally because of an unfixable misfiring engine. Championship situation was shifted on Saturday as Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin went off-road in the afternoon loop. Other major retirements of the day included

Gus Greensmith Fergus "Gus" Greensmith (born 26 December 1996) is a British rally driver. Rally career Greensmith's family owns fuel and lubricants distributor Crown Oil. A former youth goalkeeper for Manchester City F.C. and karter before moving into th ...

and Elliott Edmondson, and Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson. Eventually,

and

won the event, which was enough to overhaul their teammate Evans and Martin to snatch their seventh world titles.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

*Bold text indicates 2020 World Champions.

World Rally Championship-2

Adrien Fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul led the category, but a right-rear

puncture Puncture, punctured or puncturing may refer to: * a flat tyre in British English (US English "flat tire" or just "flat") * a penetrating wound caused by pointy objects as nails or needles * Lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap * Puncture ( ...

lost their lead to Pontus Tidemand and Patrik Barth.

and Torstein Eriksen turned the tables to their favour on Saturday. The Norwegian crew eventually won the class to seal the WRC-2 titles.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

*Bold text indicates 2020 World Champions.

World Rally Championship-3

Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jæger-Amland avoided any drama to lead the class. The Norwegian crew ran as high as third in the overall standings. However, their lead was narrowed by Oliver Solberg and Aaron Johnston by the end of the second leg. Mikkelsen and Jæger-Amland refused to give their lead away and eventually won the category. Jari Huttunen and Mikko Lukka became WRC-3 crowned champions.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

*Bold text indicates 2020 World Champions.

Junior World Rally Championship

Tom Kristensson and Joakim Sjöberg comfortably led the class, while their title rivals Mārtiņš Sesks and Renars Francis, and

and Marko Salminen both in trouble. Championship leader Sesks and Francis' rally went even worse when they crashed out on Saturday. Kristensson and Sjöberg comfortably brought the car home to put the victory in their pockets, and with that, junior world titles in hands.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

*Bold text indicates 2020 World Champions.

Notes

References

External links

*
2020 Rally Monza
at ewrc-results.com * Th
official website
of the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rally Monza, 2020

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

2020 in Italian motorsport December 2020 sports events in Italy

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...