Umberto Scandola, Italian Rally Champ in 2012, debuted in WRC 3 FIA World Rally Championship at 2020. WRC 3 Series is newly born category reserved to independent private teams with R5 rally cars. After a year of transition between Škoda Fabia S2000 and Hyundai i20 R5 Rally car, Scandola and his loyal navigator Guido D'Amore, faced the insidious Rallye Monte Carlo. A lot was at stake.

This venue is also the first official race of Hyundai Rally Team Italia in partnership with Pakelo Lubricants. The excitement in joining WRC is big. On thursday 23rd started the 88th edition of the Monte Carlo Rallye with a P7 for Scandola in the WRC3 category. 

On Friday the second round starts in the early morning. The six stages take place in the 20km-interval between Curbans and Venterol. Scandola enters in a good pace, but a small mistake compromises the entire race. Exiting a curve the car slips hitting an embankment with the front part. The outcome is that the bumper kicks and breaks the radiator and the wheel goes flat. Mechanic damages force the Team to stop and the withdrawal causes a heavy 50 minute penalty preventing the team to do the last 4 Sunday races. However, Hyundai Rally Team Italia doesn't give up. On Saturday round Scandola demonstrates that he can do very well and the feeling with the car is very good. A bittersweet consolation is represented by the 2 points that the team got for scoring the 9th place overall. The debut wasn't that easy and the desire to get better results is strong. Hyundai Motorsport got a very exciting weekend. In WRC master category 2019 World Champion Ott Tanak goes off road but the other official Hyundai team led by Belgian driver Thierry Neuville dominated the Rallye winning 6 stages out of 16, highlighting the competitive potential of Hyundai i20. Let's wait for the next round in Sweden to get fresh news about Hyundai Rally Team Italia.