Lancia made the Monte Carlo Rally its own in the 1970s with four wins for Sando Munari – in 1972 the legendary Italian claimed an unlikely victory in the Fulvia HF and then three consecutive wins (1975-77) came behind the wheel of the immortal Stratos (above). Miki Biasion got the Group A chapter underway with victory at the wheel of the Lancia Delta HF 4WD, the first of four consecutive wins for the car (the later triumphs coming in the car’s Integrale iterations). Henri Toivonen triumphed on the Monte Carlo Rally just as the Group B era came to a close, his win marking his last triumph before his untimely death in Corsica four months later. Lancia won the Monte Carlo Rally no less than five times during the Group A era: in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1992. Here Bruno Saby races to victory at the wheel of the Delta Integrale in 1988. In 1979 Bernard Darniche made it four wins for the Lancia Stratos that decade on the Monte Carlo Rally, after winning by the slimmest of margins.

No other event in the world conjures up the same level of heritage, challenge and spectacle as the Monte Carlo Rally. Run for the first time in 1911, it remains one of the most renowned tests of man and machine the sport offers. On January 21, the event will form the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the first time the legendary rally has been included on the IRC schedule.

And with a three strong factory-run Grande Punto S2000 line-up, plus the back up support of a quartet of private entries, the Abarth brand is seeking to stamp its name into the record books for the first time, and join its Italian Fiat Group stable mates on the famous roll call of the world's most important rally: Fiat and Lancia have both triumphed on the finish line in Monte Carlo.

Fiat's first victory came back in 1928 courtesy of Jacques Bignan, while Lancia took its first win in 1954 thanks to Louis Chiron. Lancia really made the event its own in the 1970s with four superb wins for Sandro Munari – in 1972 the legendary Italian driver claimed an unlikely victory in the Fulvia HF, and then three consecutive wins (1975-77) came behind the wheel of the immortal Stratos, a car that simply rewrote the concept of the winning rally car. In 1979 Bernard Darniche made it four wins for the Stratos that decade, before Walter Röhrl kicked the 1980s off with a win for the Fiat 131.

Three years later in the early era of the fearsome Group B cars, Röhrl took a win at the wheel of the Lancia 037 Rally and the late Henri Toivonen rounding out the era with a win in its successor, the dramatic Delta S4 in 1986. A year later Miki Biasion got the Group A chapter underway with victory at the wheel of the Lancia Delta HF 4WD, the first of four consecutive wins for the car (the later triumphs coming in the car’s Integrale iterations).

Winning the glamorous Monte Carlo Rally along the way to a hatful of FIA World Rally Championship titles helped cement Lancia's image as one of the world's most evocative automotive brands. The winning spree by Lancia continued into the nineties with Frenchman Didier Auriol claiming victory in 1990 and then again two years later (1992), leaving a seventeen-year gap until this year before an Italian brand once again pitches for victory.

Traditionally held in mid-January the rally is often prone to inclement weather conditions, with snow and ice frequently coating the mountainous asphalt passes and leaving them extremely treacherous. As well as coping with slippery stage surfaces, drivers must also negotiate sharp hairpin turns, surrounded only by perilously steep drops.

The event’s format has chopped and changed over time. Up until 1991, competitors could select different starting points prior to completing concentration runs in order to reach the official starting location. In recent years the rally mainly used stages in the Alpes Maritime before switching to the Ardèche region in 2007, when night stages – including a pass over the famous Col de Turini – returned to the itinerary. This year’s competition represents a major departure from recent seasons with the rally starting in Monte Carlo on Tuesday and then returning there for the finish on Saturday.

Since 1973 the event has marked the opening round of the FIA World Rally Championship, a year when Frenchman Jean-Claude Andruet claimed victory at the wheel of a Alpine-Renault A110. After the global oil crisis forced the event’s cancellation in 1974, Lancia's Munari began his incredible run of three successive victories.

Following Jean-Pierre Nicolas’ success in 1978 (who is now the IRC’s motorsport development manager), Darniche triumphed on the 1979 event with a meagre six-second advantage over Björn Waldegård’s Ford Escort Mk II. Waldegård has always been convinced he would have won but for the time lost when a group of unruly spectators blocked a bridge with a lump of concrete.

Walter Röhrl’s third victory in 1983 (037 Rally) was the first to be achieved by a rally car conforming to the Group B regulations, and the German brought home his thunderous Audi Quattro in first place a year later for his fourth win. Finns Ari Vatanen (1985) and Toivonen (1986) also triumphed during the Group B era, Toivonen’s win marking his last triumph before his untimely death on the Tour de Corsica just four months later.

Biaison helped to usher in the new Group A regulations for 1987, when he claimed the first of two victories. The Nineties coincided with Didier Auriol taking four wins and Patrick Bernardini becoming an unlikely victory in 1996 when the event counted towards two-litre championship points only. Piero Liatti scored the first win by a World Rally Car when he triumphed in 1997. With World Rally Cars not permitted to take part on IRC events, the 77th running of the rally will mark the start of a fresh era for this famous event, with several exciting new cars and drivers.