WRC - ACI Rally Monza - Event preview

Sport news Best known as the site of Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza was added to the WRC calendar for the first time in 2020 to round out a unique season. Stages in the mountains around Bergamo made up the itinerary alongside tests at Monza that combined sections of the Grand Prix circuit with the historic banked oval and mixed-surface access roads. Conditions including rain and snow made for a particularly challenging event. One year ago, Sébastien Ogier won at Monza to overhaul Elfyn Evans and claim the drivers’ title. This year, the two Toyota drivers will again fight for the crown at the final round, with Ogier this time entering the Italian event with a lead of 17 points over his team-mate. While Evans targets his first title, Ogier will attempt to secure his eighth championship in what will be his final event before retiring from full-time WRC competition. The manufacturers’ championship will also be settled at Monza, with Toyota leading Hyundai by 47 points, with 52 available from the final round. As usual, Kalle Rovanperä is also nominated to score points for Toyota alongside Ogier and Evans, while Takamoto Katsuta once more lines up in an additional Yaris WRC. At Hyundai, Thierry Neuville is joined for Monza by Dani Sordo and Teemu Suninen, who makes his first appearance in the team’s i20 Coupe WRC after Ott Tänak stepped aside because of personal family reasons. M-Sport Ford lines up with Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux in its Ford Fiesta WRC – the former to be guided by a new co-driver after the retirement of Chris Patterson. Oliver Solberg also has a new co-driver with Elliott Edmondson as he makes his fourth start of the season in a 2C Competition-entered Hyundai World Rally Car. ACI Rally Monza will be the farewell event of the current-specifications WRC cars before the championship enters an exciting new hybrid era with the Rally1 cars in 2022. Already having clinched the FIA WRC2 drivers’ title, Andreas Mikkelsen heads the category entry at Monza along with team-mate Marco Bulacia as they look to win the teams’ title for Toksport WRT. The Italian Movisport squad is also in contention and fields Nikolay Gryazin and Enrico Brazzoli. Meanwhile, Jari Huttunen makes his debut for M-Sport after switching from Hyundai. In FIA WRC3, Poland’s Kajetan Kajetanowicz and France’s Yohan Rossel are battling over the championship crown. Others to watch include Chris Ingram, Josh McErlean and Grégoire Munster. Fifteen of the 22 entries in the class are for Italian drivers, including the 2020 national champion Andrea Crugnola and local rivals Stefano Albertini and Damiano De Tommaso. There are 82 cars entered in total.   THE 2021 ROUTE As opposed to 2020, the route for this year’s Rally Monza includes mountain stages on both Friday and Saturday. The Gerosa and Costa Valle Imagna tests return and will both be run twice on Friday morning to provide a challenging start to the rally. Crews will then return to Monza for three stages at the circuit during the afternoon. Saturday follows a similar format: San Fermo, a new mountain stage, is paired with the more familiar Selvino test, both to be repeated before a duo of stages at Monza. Sunday is again based entirely at the circuit, with a repeat of Friday evening’s ‘Grand Prix’ stage to be followed by two passes of Serraglio – the latter as the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage.   RALLY DATA Total distance: 676.94 km Stage distance: 254.46 km (37.59 %) Number of stages: 16   MEDIA ACCREDITATION Media accreditation and attendance is strictly managed with modified terms under COVID-19 regulations. All attendees are required to comply with the COVID-19 protocol as defined by the event organisers (please refer to the COVID-19 page on the event website and Bulletin 2 in the Official Notice Board). Media accreditation must be collected personally by accredited Pass Holders at the Accreditation Center, located via Carlo Cattaneo 88, Lissone (MB). Opening hours: Monday 15 November: 14:00 - 18:00 Tuesday, 16 November: 14:00 - 20:00 Wednesday, 17 November: 08:00 - 20:00 Thursday, 18 November: 08:00 - 20:00 Friday, 19 November: 07:00 - 14:00   2021 WRC ACI RALLY MONZA TIMETABLE AND MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES Wednesday 17 November   Mandatory media safety briefing via video conference (details TBC) 17:30 hrs     Thursday 18 November   Pre-event FIA press conference, via online video conference (details TBC) 14:45 – 15:15 hrs -FIA WRC3 14:45 hrs -FIA WRC2 14:55 hrs -FIA WRC 15:05 hrs Photo opp. with P1 crews, Monza Service Park 15:15 hrs Shakedown for P1 and invited competitors, Monza Circuit 18:00 – 19:00 hrs Shakedown for P1, P2 and P3 competitors, Monza Circuit  19:00 – 20:30 hrs Shakedown for non-priority drivers, Monza Circuit 20:30 – 22:00 hrs Meet the Crews with WRC TPs, then Top 3 SD, Rally Village approx. 20:40     Friday 19 November   Start of the rally, Section 1, Monza Pits Lane 06:15 hrs First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & service (TC4A), SP 12:25 hrs First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & flexi-service (TC7A), SP 18:40 hrs Meet the Crews with WRC TPs, then Top 3 overall, Rally Village during final service     Saturday 20 November   Start of Section 6, Monza SP 05:50 hrs First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & service (TC11A), SP 13:38 hrs First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & flexi-service (TC13A), SP 17:26 hrs Meet the Crews with WRC TPs, then Top 3 overall, Rally Village during final service     Sunday 21 November   Start of Section 10, Monza Service Park  07:15 hrs First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & service (TC15A), SP 10:30 hrs Final podium and prize giving, Monza Circuit approx. 13:30 hrs Final media zone 14:00 –15:30 hrs Post-event FIA press conference, via video conference (details TBC)* 15:30 hrs - FIA WRC2 and WRC3 event and championship winning team and drivers 15:30 hrs - FIA WRC championship winners (driver, co-driver and team) 15:50 hrs -Top three overall winning drivers and manufacturer representative 16:10 hrs   FIA PRESS CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE FIA WRC Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT – Sébastien Ogier (FRA)   Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT – Elfyn Evans (GBR)   M-Sport Ford WRT – Gus Greensmith (GBR)   Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT – Teemu Suninen (FIN)     FIA WRC2 Toksport WRT – Andreas Mikkelsen (NOR)   M-Sport Ford WRT – Jari Huttunen (FIN)     FIA WRC3 Kajetan Kajetanowicz (POL)   Yohan Rossel (FRA)   Andrea Crugnola (ITA)   MANUFACTURER WRC ENTRIES, 2021 ACI RALLY MONZA Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Sébastien Ogier (FRA) / Julien Ingrassia (FRA) - #1   Elfyn Evans (GBR) / Scott Martin (GBR) - #33   Kalle Rovanperä (FIN) / Jonne Halttunen (FIN) - #69     Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Thierry Neuville (BEL) / Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) - #11   Dani Sordo (ESP) / Cándido Carrera (ESP) - #6   Teemu Suninen (FIN) / Mikko Markkula (FIN) - #3     M-Sport Ford WRT Gus Greensmith (GBR) / TBA - #44   Adrien Fourmaux (FRA) / Alexandre Coria (FRA) - #16   2021 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS The provisional classifications for all the WRC championships are available here . World Rally Championship Rally Monza WRC SEASON 2021 Sport Rallies 1SportWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2021Rally Monza01 Friday, November 12, 2021 - 2:07pm Friday, November 12, 2021 - 2:07pm