The stages

How stages are chosen

A stage is generated from the date, so everyone in the world drives exactly the same road on the same day. The countries come round in shuffled weeks: in any seven days each country appears once, and the order is drawn so that no country returns within four days of its last stage. Over a month that gives every country four or five stages.

A stage is generated from the date, so everyone in the world drives exactly the same road on the same day. The countries come round in shuffled blocks: in November 2026 the five new countries come round more often, and from 1 December every twelve days hold each of the twelve countries once, and the order is drawn so that no country returns within six days of its last stage. Over a month that gives every country two or three stages.

The date also decides the length of the stage, the time of day and the weather. A stage can be anything from its standard length to half as long again. Most days are sunny, but a day can come up overcast, wet or snowy, and some stages run at sunset, at night or in fog. The briefing screen shows all of this, together with a map and a climb profile, before you commit an attempt.

Wales: forest gravel

Welsh stages are loose gravel and alternate between two kinds of road. The open sections cross clear-felled hillside and moorland behind dry-stone walls, with tight, technical corners and short links between them. The forest sprints run through rows of Sitka spruce, where the road is narrower, faster and flowing. Expect a working timber operation by the road: forestry tracks, stacked logs, cones and logging machines.

How to drive it: gravel lets the car slide early, so start the drift before the corner rather than in it. The stone walls on the open sections are solid, so run wide on exit only where you can see the verge.

Japan: mountain pass tarmac

Japanese stages climb a mountain pass on smooth tarmac. One side of the road is a concrete cut slope, the other drops away, and hairpins come in quick succession. Concrete gutters line the inside of some hairpins, and rain is common.

How to drive it: tarmac has the most grip in the game, so the car will not slide unless you make it. Brake in a straight line, flick the car in with a short tap of the brake and keep the drift tight to the inside.

Sweden: snow and ice in the forest

The Swedish stages run through snowy Värmland forest and open farmland, with snowbanks along the edge of the road. The surface is packed snow, which gives the least grip of the regular surfaces.

How to drive it: on snow the car slides on its own whenever you turn on the throttle. Steer early, keep the throttle steady and use small corrections. Big steering inputs on snow cost more time than they save.

Switzerland: alpine tarmac

Swiss stages are all tarmac and are built from four kinds of road in a random order: villages with square junction corners between the chalets, switchback ladders climbing the hillside, fast valley roads with a bridge chicane over the river, and long contour roads hugging the mountainside. Every Swiss stage has at least one switchback ladder.

How to drive it: the switchbacks are steep, so a hairpin taken uphill needs less braking than the same hairpin downhill. On the valley sections carry speed through the kinks rather than drifting them.

Monte Carlo: tarmac, snow and ice

The Monte Carlo stages are cut into the mountainside, with a rock face on one side and a stone wall above the drop on the other. The tarmac is broken up by patches of packed snow and black ice, and spectators gather in lay-bys built out over the drop.

How to drive it: the grip changes under you. Ice gives very little grip and long braking distances, so look for the pale patches ahead and do your braking on the dry tarmac before them.

USA: the Grand Canyon

American stages follow the rim of the Grand Canyon on hard-packed desert gravel. The road has fast open bends, some long straights, dry river beds that dip under the car and stretches of washboard.

How to drive it: desert gravel is faster than forest gravel and the car slides through the turns on its own. Keep it flowing and avoid big corrections over the dips, where the car goes light.

Poland: the industrial estate

Polish stages run through a nearly flat industrial estate: factory halls and depots right behind the kerb, side roads into the yards, chain-link fences, pipe bridges over the road, a railway level crossing and red-and-white concrete barriers on the corners. At night the estate is lit by orange street lamps.

How to drive it: the corners are short and the barriers are close, so precision matters more than speed. Use the full width of the road and straighten the car before the next barrier.

Portugal: sand, ruts and the Fafe jump

New from 1 November 2026. Portuguese stages climb through the hills of the Minho on a sandy gravel road. Sections alternate between forest tunnels of eucalyptus and maritime pine and wide-open ridges of gorse and granite, with wind turbines on the skyline, ravines cut between steep granite walls and big crowds on the hairpins. The road runs high in the serra, with the coast, a peninsula and the Atlantic far below. The fast corners hide behind blind crests, the slow ones are tight handbrake hairpins, and every stage ends with the Fafe jump: a long flight over the crest, through the arch, to land on the slope before the finish line.

How to drive it: the sand is cut into ruts that get deeper the further into the stage you go. The car runs true inside them and kicks when you climb out, so pick your line early and commit to it. In the rock ravines the granite walls come right to the edge and they are solid: when the note says don’t cut, it means it. Hit the Fafe jump straight and flat out.

Finland: the roller coaster

New from 4 November 2026. Finnish stages are the fastest in the game: wide, smooth, hard-packed gravel through endless birch forest, then out across open fields and past blue lakes, red farmhouses, saunas and jetties. The road never stops rising and falling, crest after crest, and the biggest yumps come right before fast corners, with crowds on the landing and countdown boards before the lip. Some days are summer green, some autumn gold.

How to drive it: the car can’t steer in the air, so turn in before the lip and land already pointing through the bend. Lifting before a jump shortens the flight; carry speed, set the angle early and trust the notes.

Chile: the Biobío plantations

New from 3 November 2026. Chilean stages are narrow, dusty gravel through the pine and eucalyptus plantations of the Biobío. Sections switch between fast ridge-top roads with the valleys and the river below and the snowy Andes on the horizon, steep climbs and descents of around 11% with stacked hairpins hidden over blind brows, and closed-in runs between the trees. Red clay cut banks line the uphill side; felled blocks leave stumps and timber stacked at the roadside. Fans stand behind yellow fencing with Chilean flags.

How to drive it: the road is narrow and there is little room to run wide, so brake early for the blind hairpins: the note will say over crest. Dry gravel grips better than in Wales but still steps out early. On the climbs, keep the revs up through the hairpins.

Germany: the Panzerplatte

New from 7 November 2026. German stages run over the Panzerplatte, the Baumholder military range: wide roads of concrete slabs laid for tanks across open grassland, lined with massive concrete cubes evenly spaced along both edges, long straights over crests into square junction corners and chicanes. Wrecked tanks lie out in the grass and the crowds are huge. Between range sections the road drops onto narrow tarmac lanes with gravelly edges, and through the barracks on a cobbled street.

How to drive it: three surfaces, three levels of grip. The tarmac lanes grip best, but the gravel at their edges does not. The concrete is slicker: it lets go sooner and takes longer to come back, so brake earlier than the grip looks; the cubes on the inside of the corners are solid (don’t cut). The cobbles are the narrowest and the slipperiest of all.

Italy: the hill towns of Liguria

New from 6 November 2026. Italian stages climb through the hill towns above Sanremo: narrow tarmac streets between tall old houses in ochre, cream and stone, with green shutters, balconies and terracotta roofs, the town stacked up the hillside above and below the road. At the square junctions the street straight on is closed off with barriers and tape and packed with fans; more watch from the alleys and the balconies. Between the towns the road winds over olive terraces between dry-stone walls, with a short gravel lane through the olive groves.

How to drive it: the walls of the houses are the edge of the road, and they are solid. Brake early for the square corners and use the handbrake to get round; there is no room to run wide. Out of town the parapet on the drop side is solid too.

The Mystery stage

On special days the calendar shows a purple question mark: the Mystery stage, a place of its own. On Halloween (31 October) it is Dracula’s Pass in Transylvania: a haunted mountain road at midnight, through black forest and past graveyards, up a switchback ladder to the castle on the crag.

Weather and time of day

Ready?

Check today’s briefing, then race today’s stage. New to the game? Start with how to play and the driving guide.