Second place at the season opener | Rally Monte Carlo

At the traditional opening event of the FIA World Rally Championship season, Rallye Monte-Carlo, crews competing in Škoda cars achieved notable success. The Italian crew Roberto Daprà and Luca Guglielmetti finished second in the WRC2 category, while a total of five Škoda crews secured top ten results in the category. 

The legendary Rallye Monte-Carlo has long been the established season opener of the FIA World Rally Championship, and this year was no exception. The 2025 event also marked a milestone in WRC2, with five different manufacturers represented at the start of the season. Among them, Škoda recorded a significant achievement with the Fabia RS Rally2: five crews driving cars from the Mladá Boleslav-based manufacturer finished in the top ten of the category, leaving only five remaining positions to competitors from the other four brands. 

The most successful Škoda crew was the Italian duo of Roberto Daprà and Luca Guglielmetti, who completed the demanding rally in an excellent second place. Throughout the event, characterised by constantly changing surface conditions, Daprà and Guglielmetti gradually built confidence in themselves, the car and the track conditions, allowing them to steadily climb up the rankings.

After Thursday’s shorter opening leg, during which crews faced a challenging mix of snow, slush and ice, the Italian crew held sixth position in WRC2. “These were the most difficult stages of my life. You never know how much grip there is,” Daprà described the conditions. On Friday, they moved up to fourth in the category, and by the end of Saturday they had settled into second place overall in WRC2. A key factor was an outstanding performance on the second pass of the rally’s longest stage, La Bréole – Bellaffaire, where the crew set by far the fastest WRC2 time and the fourth fastest time overall. 

During Sunday’s final leg, which included passes over the iconic Col de Turini, the Italian crew successfully defended their position. “Many people said this was the toughest Monte Carlo in the last 15 years. I am very proud of the work we did this weekend,” Daprà beamed at the finish. 

The second-best Škoda crew at the rally was the French duo of Eric Camilli and Thibault De La Haye, whose event followed a different trajectory. They led the WRC2 category on Thursday, but rapidly changing conditions caught them out on the opening stage on Friday. “I was too cautious,” Camilli explained, having lost almost 50 seconds. After Friday, the crew held second place overall, but on Saturday they were pushed back one position by the super-fast Daprà. On Sunday, damage to the car’s suspension ultimately resulted in a fourth-place finish.