The championship started with Andreas Mikkelsen, in a one-off outing with Škoda Motorsport after losing his WRC drive because of the Volkswagen Motorsport withdrawal from the sport, winning the Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo by more than 3 minutes from teammate Jan Kopecký. Mikkelsen won 10 out of 15 stages, and led from start to end. The podium was completed by Monte veteran and previous winner Bryan Bouffier. Eric Camilli finished fourth in his first outing with the M-Sport World Rally Team after being demoted from the team's WRC drivers line up.