2012 Monte Carlo Rally
| 2012 Monte Carlo Rally 80ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo |
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Round 1 of the 2012 World Rally Championship season
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Sébastien Loeb during Rally
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| Host country |
 Monaco
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| Rally base | Monte Carlo | |
| Dates run | January 18 – 22 2012 | |
| Stages | 18 (433.36 km; 269.28 mi) | |
| Stage surface | Tarmac and snow | |
| Overall distance | 1,772.52 km (1,101.39 mi) | |
| Results | ||
| Overall winner |
 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WRT
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| Crews | 82 at start, 54 at finish | |
The 2012 Monte Carlo Rally, officially 80ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo was the first round of the 2012 World Rally Championship (WRC) season. The rally took place between 18 and 22 January 2012.
The rally, which returned to the WRC calendar after a three-year absence, started in Valence on Wednesday 18 January and covered over 1,339 kilometres (832.0 mi), including 433 kilometres (269.1 mi) of special stages. Stages were run in both daylight and at night, and the route included two passes through the famous Col de Turini stage on Saturday. The rally became the first in the modern era of the sport to be held over the course of five days. 82 entries were registered for the event.
2011 World Champion Sébastien Loeb took an early lead when he won the first stage of the rally, Le Moulinon–Antraigues. However, icy conditions on the second stage, Burzet–St Martial meant that Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala took the lead when he adopted an unorthodox tyre strategy, using super-soft and studded tyres on opposite corners of his car. By the end of the stage, Latvala had established a thirty-second lead over Loeb. Latvala's lead was short-lived, as he crashed out on the second running of Burzet–St Martial when he missed a pace note warning that a corner tightened on entry. His car fell over a short drop, but could not be retrieved. Ford later confirmed that Latvala had retired from the rally, as the event was not run to "Rally 2" – formerly super-rally – regulations which would normally allow Latvala to restart the rally the next day.
Latvala's accident meant that Loeb reclaimed the lead of the rally, one minute ahead of Mini's Dani Sordo and Petter Solberg in the second works Ford Fiesta. Sébastien Ogier finished the day fourth in his Škoda Fabia S2000, which he credited to the mixed conditions minimising the differences in performance between the WRC and Super 2000 cars. Evgeny Novikov was fifth, the first of the privateer WRC cars.
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