Renault Formula 1 star Robert Kubica will tackle the Monte Carlo Rally at the wheel of a Renault Clio R3 later this month.
The Polish driver has already contested two rallies with Renault since he departed the BMW F1 team at the end of last season, but the opening round of this year's Intercontinental Rally Challenge will be by far his biggest challenge yet. His entry has been received by the Automobile Club de Monaco, which closed entries for the French Alps event yesterday.
Kubica's last event, the Rallye du Var, will give him some idea of what is to come on the Monte Carlo, as the French championship round runs through similar terrain to the Monte, which gets under way from Valence on Tuesday Jan. 19. The F1 star finished 29th on the Rallye du Var, but crashed his Clio on the Taormina-Messina Rally in Sicily earlier in the year.
Kimi Raikkonen's first rally for the Citroen Junior Team is also later this month, when he drives the C4 WRC on the Arctic Rally. There had been rumors that Raikkonen would be joined in northern Finland by countryman Heikki Kovalainen. The former McLaren F1 driver, who recently signed for Lotus, has been tipped for a Proton Satria Neo S2000 drive on the Rovaniemi event, but the chances of that happening are now fading.