Monte Carlo Rally 2016

15m53.5s was Loeb's time last year. Ogier should trouble that on this occasion.

Sebastien Ogier is into the stage, the champ grew up not too far from Monte Carlo and he'll be hoping for a better start than last year - a hiding from Sebastien Loeb...

WRC 2016 IS GO GO GO!

Very little snow reported in SS1 at the moment. Apparently the surface is relatively dry. Hopefully that doesn't spoil the drama too much.

Besides, reports of snow in SS2...

Just five minutes to go until we kick off the season, in the best possible way; the Monte.

So onto the task at hand. SS1 – which apparently has at least 13 names – should be a corker if last year is anything to go by. Here’s Rallies Editor DAVID EVANS to explain.

"This was the Sebastien Loeb-hero maker from last year. The returning nine-time world champion was 22 seconds faster than anybody through this stage last season.

"This time around, the 13-miler should be a bit more straightforward, with less snow lying in the road than 12 months ago. Loeb set his time from further down the field last year, but the thinking is that you want to be as close to the front as possible tonight.

"With the front-running crews cutting the corners as much as they will, the road will be getting very dirty, very quickly. Away from the start and out of Entrevaux, the stage is quite twisty, but once it turns onto the D10 at Castellet-St-Cassien, it gets much quicker and stays that way to the finish.

Latest ice information is of patches of black ice a mile in…"

We’ll also be keeping a keen eye on WRC2 this weekend, as Elfyn Evans was quickest in the shakedown. Although you shouldn’t read to much into the Shakedown stage, Evans was quicker than Eric Camilli, who has replaced him in the M-Sport WRC team.

Elfyn has produced some brilliant performances on tarmac, so it’ll be interesting to see how he compares to the host of Monte and tarmac specialists who will great him in the mountains.

For those of you who need a quick refresh on driver line-ups, here’s a quick update on who’s at what team and the changes from last year.

VW: Stick with Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen
Hyundai: Stick with Sordo, Neuville and Paddon (Paddon drives 2015-spec car on the Monte)

M-Sport: WRC2 runner Eric Camilli and former-Citroen driver Mads Ostberg make up a new-for-2016 M-Sport team. Elfyn Evans moves to a works WRC2 Fiesta R5 for the Monte.

DMACK: Ott Tanak takes the reigns of a Ford Fiesta RS WRC for DMACK, who he competed with in 2014.

Other WRC runners: Kubica (Fiesta), Bertelli (Fiesta), Bouffier (Fiesta), Re (DS 3 WRC).

What do we know? We’ll follow this post with a quick update on the silly season and which drivers are where, but first; the Monte.

No points for guessing that the Monte is tricky, everyone knows that. But the current whether is very unpredictable. Ice and Snow will almost certainly greet the drivers on tomorrow’s run. Let’s have a brief look at what’s coming up.

Friday – The rally gets underway in the shadow of the famous Casino, before two runs in the dark near Digne-les-Bains will lead the cars up to Gap for service.

Saturday – Morning loop features stages around Hautes Alpes and Isere, which could throw up some slippery conditions. Afternoon loop consists of two runs of Lardier et Valenca – over 30 miles in length, plus Faye the famous Sisteron stages.

Sunday – Run through the Alpes Martimes above Monaco, a traditional route that features one of the WRC’s most famous stages, the Col de Turini.

That’s over 230 miles of competitive stages, 16 tests in total. We’re in for a bumpy ride.

Hello and welcome to a brand new season of the WRC and to Monte Carlo. It feels like yesterday we finished the season with Wales Rally GB. Really, the rallying offseason is way to short, or way too long depending on how you look at things.