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Grégoire Munster
Luxembourgish rally driver From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Grégoire Munster (born 24 December 1998) is a professional rally driver.[1] Munster holds dual-citizenship through his Belgian father and Luxembourgish mother, but he drives with a licence from Luxembourg because he receives some financial support from the Automobile Federation of Luxembourg. He lives in Belgium. Grégoire is the son of former Belgian rally icon Bernard Munster.[2]
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Career
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Early career
Munster started his rallying career as a co-driver for his father Bernard, with whom he debuted at the Terre de Lozère Rally in 2015.[3] The following year, the Munster duo won the Rally Nationale Terre de Vaucluse, with Grégoire co-driving a Porsche 911 Carrera RS Proto.[4] In 2017, Munster entered his first championship as a driver, finishing sixth in the ADAC Opel Rallye Cup.[5] His 2018 season proved fruitful, as Munster progressed to win three rallies in the Opel Cup and ended up second in the standings.[6][7][8][9] He also contested the Belgian Junior Championship, winning it with four rally triumphs at the wheel of an Opel Adam R2.[10]
Having made his European Rally Championship debut in 2018, Munster entered the ERC with the ADAC Opel Rallye Junior Team in 2019, driving in the ERC-3 Junior category.[11] He scored a best finish of fourth in Spain and finished seventh in the junior class standings. Munster also retained the Belgian Junior title by winning four of the opening five rounds, as well as finishing second again in the ADAC Opel Rallye Cup with three wins from four outings.[12][13][14] During 2019, Munster also made his WRC debut, contesting the Monte Carlo Rally with a Škoda Fabia R5.[15] He later also drove at the Rally Finland together with Louis Louka.[16]
Years at Hyundai
For the 2020 season, Munster joined Hyundai and its junior programme to pilot the i20 R5 in the ERC on a full-time basis.[17] He showed progress to his debut year, as Munster followed two top ten results up with his first podium, as well as first ERC stage win, in Portugal.[18] Another strong result with second at Hungary followed, though Munster lost out on the ERC1 junior title after suffering an early puncture at the Rally Islas Canarias, leaving him third in the overall standings.[19][20] During 2020, Munster again made several WRC starts in WRC2 machinery. He remained with Hyundai in 2021 and focused on the Belgian Rally Championship, where two victories helped him and Louka to place second overall.[21][22] In addition, Munster raced in two events of the WRC3 Championship, notably winning seven stages (including the Power Stage) at the Ypres Rally.[23]
Munster joined the Customer Racing Junior Driver programme of Hyundai Motorsport in 2022.[24] As part of the programme, he and Louka competed in several WRC2 events, starting off with fifth in class at Monte Carlo.[25] Five more rounds followed, as Munster took a maiden WRC2 victory in Japan on his way to ninth in the championship.[26] He was later voted as the most improved driver of the WRC in 2022 by fans.[27]
WRC top class
In 2023, Munster left Hyundai to join M-Sport Ford ahead of another season focused on the WRC2.[28] However, after co-driving with Jourdan Serderidis at the Malcolm Wilson Rally, Munster received the opportunity to make his Rally1 debut at the Rally Chile in the car owned by Serderidis.[29][30] He then impressed by completing a secure drive in mixed conditions at the Central European Rally later in the month.[31] Munster concluded the year by retiring late in the WRC2 class in Japan after competing for the win on dirty asphalt, leaving him 17th in the class standings.[32][33]
With Ott Tänak's departure from Ford, M-Sport promoted Munster to contest the 2024 WRC season in what was titled a learning year.[34][35] Down on mileage compared to his more experienced WRC competitors, Serderidis-backed Munster struggled heavily, making defining errors in Monte Carlo, Portugal, and Finland among others.[36] His performances improved towards the rest of the year, peaking with two successive fifth-place finishes in Central Europe and Japan.[37] Consequently, Munster and Louka were retained by M-Sport for 2025, this time being installed as team leaders as a consequence of Adrien Fourmaux leaving the team.[38] Despite encountering a puncture on Friday and crashing out on black ice late on at Monte Carlo, Munster impressed with his pace, as proven by his maiden stage win in SS10.[39]
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Rally results
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ADAC Opel Rallye Cup results
Belgian Rally Championship results
ERC results
WRC results
* Season still in progress.
WRC2 results
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References
External links
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