Monte Carlo Rally's World Rally Championship return attracts 89 entries

The Automobile Club de Monaco has released an 89-strong entry list for next month's Rallye Monte-Carlo, the opening round of the World Rally Championship.

The list boasts 15 World Rally Car entries, including Mikko Hirvonen in a Citroen Total World Rally Team DS3 WRC for the first time and Petter Solberg's Ford World Rally Team return with Britain's Chris Patterson alongside.

The list also confirms the news earlier this month, that Kris Meeke has been dropped by Mini, with pay-driver Pierre Campana taking his #52 entry on the January 18-22 event.

Beyond the factory entries from Citroen, Ford and Mini, there are private Fiesta RS WRCs for Matthew Wilson, Henning Solberg, Martin Prokop, Francois Delecour, Evgeny Novikov and Ott Tanak. Peter van Merksteijn and Thierry Neuville drive DS3 WRCs, while Paulo Nobre is expected to be announced in a third Mini John Cooper Works WRC.

Beyond the WRCs, Volkswagen fields a pair of Skoda Fabia S2000s for Sebastien Ogier and Kevin Abbring, while Proton marks the beginning of its maiden Super 2000 WRC season with Satria Neos for P-G Andersson and Giandomenico Basso. The two factory Proton drivers will face last year's Monte winner Bryan Bouffier, who again drives a Peugeot 207 S2000 on the French Alpine classic.