Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were the defending rally winners.[3] The Citroën World Rally Team, the team they drove for in 2019, were the reigning manufacturers' winners, but were not defending their title after parent company Citroën withdrew from the sport.[4]Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson were the defending winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but were not defending their WRC-2 title as they joined the WRC category in 2020.[5][b] In the World Rally Championship-3 category, French privateersYoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud were the reigning rally winners.[5][c]
The following crews were entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, its support categories, the World Rally Championship-2 and World Rally Championship-3, and privateer entries that were not registered to score points in any championship. A total of eighty-eight entries were received, with eleven crews entered in World Rally Cars, five crews entered Group R5 cars in the World Rally Championship-2 and a further thirteen crews entered Group R5 cars in the World Rally Championship-3.
The route for the 2020 rally features a total of 304.28 km (189.07 mi) in competitive kilometres,[1] which is 19.55 km (12.15 mi) shorter than the route that was used in the 2019 event.[9] The 2020 route features substantial revisions to the route used in 2019, with the addition of the Malijal — Puimichel, Curbans — Venterol and St. Clement-sur-Durance — Freissinieres stages. The Bayons — Bréziers stage returned to the rally after being absent in 2019, while the Valdrôme — Sigottier and Roussieux — Laborel stages were removed from the itinerary.
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took an early lead on Thursday evening, but Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul moved into the lead at the end of the second stage.[10] The lead changed hands several times throughout the opening leg; Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin took the lead on the first morning before Ogier and Ingrassia consolidated their position by the end of the leg.[11] Defending World Champions Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja suffered a high-speed crash on the first pass through the St. Clement-sur-Durance — Freissinieres stage. Their Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC flew off a 40-metre high cliff at 180 km/h (111.8 mph) and rolled end-over-end through a series of trees before landing on the road below. Both Tänak and Järveoja walked away uninjured.[12] Rally leaders changed several times throughout the second leg, with Evans and Martin eventually establishing a lead over teammates Ogier and Ingrassia.[13] The third leg saw Neuville and Gilsoul re-emerge as the leaders, winning all four stages to claim their first win in Monte Carlo.[6] This saw them take twenty-five points for the outright win and five bonus points for winning the Power Stage. Ogier and Ingrassia passed Evans and Martin to finish the Power Stage in second place, only a few thousandths of a second behind Neuville and Gilsoul.
^ abcUnder rules unique to the Monte Carlo Rally, only the top sixty crews at the end of the second leg start the third leg. Those outside the top sixty are retired, but are considered to have finished the rally.