Kubica returns to Monte Carlo Rally

Kubica entered the famous event this year, but the engine in his Renault Clio failed on the prologue before the start. He subsequently managed to contest a handful of national-level rallies between his F1 commitments with the Renault team.

Although Kubica's Monte entry has been accepted, the car he will use is not yet listed. AUTOSPORT understands that it will be either a Renault Clio S1600 or a Clio R3.

Sometime Osella, Scuderia Italia and Footwork F1 driver Alex Caffi has also entered the Monte. The Italian will drive an S2000 Skoda Fabia.

Another F1-related name in action will be GP3 and Auto GP racer Adrien Tambay, son of former Ferrari and Renault F1 driver Patrick. The 19-year-old will use a Peugeot 207 co-driven by the vastly experienced Denis Giraudet, best known for his work alongside Didier Auriol in the 1990s.

Former World Rally champion Petter Solberg announced earlier this week that he would drive for Peugeot on the event, and his brother Henning has now also committed to it with an S2000 Ford Fiesta.

Although Sebastien Loeb will not be competing on the Monte, his WRC co-driver Daniel Elena will switch to the drivers' seat for the event and enter with a Citroen C2.

1994 Monte winner Francois Delecour will make a top-level rallying comeback as well, driving an S2000 Peugeot.

The regular IRC frontrunners are also enhancing their line-ups for Monte Carlo. Skoda is recalling 2008 series champion Nicolas Vouilloz again, alongside Freddy Loix, 2010 title-winner Juho Hanninen, Jan Kopecky and Andreas Mikkelsen.

Peugeot's Guy Wilks, Bruno Magalhaes, Bryan Bouffier and Thierry Neuville are joined by Stephane Sarrazin and an Astra-run car for Toni Gardemeister, while Proton had already announced that it would field high-profile pairing P-G Andersson and Chris Atkinson.

But there is no return for WRC stars Sebastien Ogier and Mikko Hirvonen - winners of the Monte for the past two seasons.