Who won the first ever WRC rally in 1973?

Jean-Claude Andruet won the first-ever WRC rally, the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally. Driving an Alpine-Renault A110 1800 with co-driver Michèle Petit, the Frenchman finished first in the opening event of the newly established World Rally Championship.

The 1973 Monte Carlo Rally ran from January 19 to January 29 and was the first round of the inaugural FIA championship. It was a demanding concentration-style event: crews started from several European cities before converging on Monte Carlo, then tackled competitive stages in Monaco and southeastern France.

Andruet’s victory was closely fought. He beat fellow Alpine-Renault driver Ove Andersson by only a small margin, with Jean-Pierre Nicolas completing an Alpine sweep of the top three. The result is sometimes confused with the first WRC drivers’ champion, which was Sweden’s Björn Waldegård; that was a season-long title, not the winner of the opening rally.