Gregoire Munster wanted to show Hyundai Motorsport that he is capable of achieving a good result in World Rally Championship and believes that Rallye Monte Carlo was a great chance for that.
The driver from Luxemburg lost his place at M-Sport Ford as the team preferred to sign Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean for the 2026 WRC season. On the other hand, Hyundai Motorsport chose the experience over the youth and for this reason announced three drivers (Hayden Paddon, Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi) for the third i20N and for replacing Ott Tanak.
Munster's weekend in Monte Carlo was not perfect as he had no power steering in Stage 3, suffered from two front right punctures and had a spin in Stage 12. He was eighth overall at the end of Saturday, but he was forced to retire before the start of the opening Sunday stage due to mechanical issues. It is very likely to see him driving the third Puma Rally1 again this season while he considers of competing in WRC2 class as well.
"I don’t know about Hayden and how many events he signed for", Munster said.
"I know that Lappi and Sordo don’t want to drive more than five, and Monte Carlo was the way to tell Hyundai we are motivated.
"And I think if you take it just by the stage times, we’ve beaten Paddon on every opportunity.
"So that’s what we wanted to show.
"And without the issue, we would be first Ford as well.
"So OK, we are not as fast as Oliver and Ogier, but I think we showed some good potential and we could be useful to a team like Hyundai to score manufacturers points".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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