Solberg fined for drifting on Monaco GP circuit during WRC opener

oliver solberg A five-minute penalty has been issued for “exhibition driving” at the Fairmont Hairpin of the Monaco Grand Prix Circuit on the way to Parc Ferme in the Monte Carlo Rally.

Last year’s WRC2 title runner-up was caught drifting around the famous turn, which is part of one of the rally’s road sections. The offense occurred after the final podium finish of the curtain raiser to the World Rally Championship for 2025.

The stewards decided to issue a hefty five-minute penalty for the infringement, although this had little effect on Solberg, deciding he would not score WRC2 championship points this weekend.

The 23-year-old Swede finished sixth in the Rally2 class and 13th overall in his competitive debut driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car.

“The stewards reviewed the video evidence. The incident occurred on the road section at the ‘Fairmont’ corner en route to the final podium in the Principality of Monaco,” the stewards report said.

“The driver admitted that he was driving sideways in front of the spectators. The driver apologized for his mistake and said that in his opinion he did not create an unsafe situation.

The stewards investigated the matter in detail and concluded that a potentially unsafe situation had arisen because a turn was made by the driver of car number 20 in “drifting” mode and several people were standing at that turn.

“Art. 12.18 of the Supplementary Regulations of the 93e Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo states that exhibition driving is strictly prohibited everywhere due to the lack of suitable venues.

“Therefore, the stewards decided that the driver of car number 20 did not respect the relevant rules and applied the above time penalty.”

This is not the first time Solberg has been penalized for exhibition driving, having been fined a minute for performing donuts at the end of the Rally Portugal Super Special stage, which cost him a WRC2 victory.

In 2022, Sébastien Ogier was reprimanded and fined €1,500 for exhibition driving before the Rally Spain podium.