Rally

1983 World Rally champion Hannu Mikkola, the Finnish rallying legend best known for scoring multiple wins for Ford and Audi, passed away on Friday night at the age of 78. Despite retiring in the early 1990s, Mikkola’s 18 World Rally Championship victories keeps him in the Top 10 most successful rally drivers in history. He

Sebastien Ogier admits it was “hard to make a difference” in the first stages of the World Rally Championship’s Arctic Rally due to his starting position. After Friday’s first two stages, ninth-placed Ogier is almost 50 seconds adrift of the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC of early leader Ott Tanak. Ogier ran first on the road

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak holds the overnight lead after the first day’s action on the Arctic Rally, the second round of the 2021 World Rally Championship. Although it is one of Europe’s oldest rallies, with a roll of honour dating back to 1966 and featuring names such as Hannu Mikkola, Ari Vatanen, Henri Toivonen and Tommi

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has tempered his team’s hopes of victory in this weekend’s Arctic Rally, ahead of the second round of the 2021 World Rally Championship. Team principal Andrea Adamo has declared that “nothing less than victory” is acceptable for the defending manufacturers’ champions on the WRC’s first visit to Lapland, which is a late

Hyundai boss Andrea Adamo admits nothing less than a win will do for the World Rally Championship team on this weekend’s Arctic Rally Finland. The squad already finds itself twenty-two points adrift of Toyota in the manufacturers’ championship after last month’s opening Monte Carlo Rally which Sebastien Ogier won for a record eighth occasion. Adamo

The man tasked with overseeing work on M-Sport’s new Rally1 car believes it will be an immediate title contender in the 2022 World Rally Championship. As part of the ongoing process in developing a car for WRC’s rules overhaul, a workshop team dedicated to the project, and a separate test programme, have been created, while

Rising French talent Adrien Fourmaux will step up to the World Rally Championship’s top division at April’s Rally Croatia with M-Sport. Confirmation of the drive in a Ford Fiesta WRC car coincides with the news that Red Bull has finalised terms to support the 25-year-old going forward. Last month, M-Sport said Fourmaux would be handed

Sebastien Ogier says Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Kalle Rovanpera can make World Rally Championship history and become the series’ youngest-ever winner in this week’s Arctic Rally Finland. The snow-based event is a new addition to the WRC calendar and replaces Rally Sweden, which was cancelled in December due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rovanpera, whose father

Andreas Mikkelsen has admitted the uncertainty over Hyundai’s World Rally Championship future could hinder his comeback plans for 2022. On Monday, Hyundai’s team principal Andrea Adamo revealed the team’s WRC participation was not guaranteed beyond this year as the company’s South Korean board had yet to give its full backing to building a car to

Hyundai is still awaiting “the green light” to develop its 2022 World Rally Championship challenger, with the Korean marque’s board yet to confirm whether it will compete next year. While Toyota and M-Sport are inching closer to running their Rally1 test mules in the open for the first time, work on Hyundai’s new challenger has

Ott Tanak says there is “a big job” to be completed before he is in a position to win the World Rally Championship’s Arctic Rally Finland in a fortnight’s time. Tanak warmed-up for the next round of the WRC by taking part in yesterday’s Otepaa Winter Rally, dominating the competition by going fastest on every

Esapekka Lappi says that he would be happy to perform test and development duties for a World Rally Championship manufacturer team as a means to earn a seat for 2022. The 2016 WRC2 champion is currently without a seat in the WRC following his departure from the M-Sport Ford squad in December. Following his title

Ott Tanak threw down the gauntlet to his World Rally Championship rivals by cruising to a 33.4 second victory on today’s Otepaa Winter Rally, a warmup for Arctic Rally Finland. Despite fresh snow making for “pretty demanding” conditions, the 2019 WRC champion set fastest times on all eight special stages in the Estonian event to

Former World Rallycross champion and double DTM title-winner Mattias Ekstrom will return to the World Rally Championship for the Arctic Rally Finland later this month, driving a Skoda Fabia R5. The 2016 World RX champion is contesting selected events in preparation for his 2021 programme with the ABT Cupra team in the new Extreme E

Oliver Solberg has said making the switch to a World Rally Car was “easier” than he expected, following his first test ahead of his Arctic Rally debut in the class. The Swede experienced Hyundai Motorsport’s i20 Coupe WRC for the first time at a test in Finland on Sunday, after confirmation came last week of

Toyota young gun Kalle Rovanpera believes this month’s Arctic Finland Rally presents his best chance yet to fight for a maiden World Rally Championship victory. The series travels to the Arctic Circle for the first time later this month for the only snow event of 2021 as a replacement for the cancelled Rally Sweden. Comprising

Oliver Solberg will step up to the premier class in the World Rally Championship with Hyundai at Arctic Rally Finland. The drive is seen by Hyundai as part of the “ongoing learning curve” for the promising 19-year-old, with Solberg sharing the i20 Coupe WRC with Aaron Johnston which will be serviced by French team 2C

Elfyn Evans believes Motorsport UK has a real fight on its hands if it is to bring the World Rally Championship back to Britain.

 Earlier this month if was announced that the UK had lost its place on the calendar to Belgium’s Ypres Rally.

 The Championship has enjoyed UK representation every year since 1973, with

Sebastien Ogier is “proud” to be a record-breaker like his boyhood idol, Ayrton Senna after becoming the most successful driver in Monte Carlo Rally history.

 Ogier conquered last weekend’s Monte Carlo Rally for an eighth time surpassing the seven event victories he shared with his former-Citroen team-mate and countryman, Sebastien Loeb. The 37-year-old Ogier has

Elfyn Evans believes the gap to Toyota counterpart Sebastien Ogier on last weekend’s Monte Carlo Rally would have been smaller had he been able to “connect” with the new Pirelli tyres. 
The Welshman finished the season opener just over 32 seconds behind the reigning world champion Ogier after struggling to maximise the potential of Pirelli

Alpine Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon says that rally drivers have “balls of steel” after gaining his first experience of the discipline on Thursday at the Monte Carlo Rally. The Frenchman drove an Alpine A110S on the first two stages of the World Rally Championship season opener as the official VIP course car, carrying his

Francois Delecour truly introduced himself to the top flight of the World Rally Championship at the 1991 Monte Carlo Rally with a stunning but ultimately agonising victory fight. TOM HOWARD revisits how the Frenchman came so near yet so far Lockdown isn’t much fun, but it does give motorsport fans the opportunity to dip into

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier has begun his final World Rally Championship campaign by sealing a record eighth Monte Carlo victory and the 50th WRC win of his career. The defending drivers’ champion broke the record of seven Monte Carlo wins set by his former nemesis, Sebastien Loeb, and also equalled Walter Rohrl’s 37-year-old record of winning

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak has said an error during his recce for this week’s Rally Monte Carlo is what led to his retirement in the 2021 World Rally Championship opener. The 2019 World Rally champion clipped the front-left tyre of his i20 Coupe WRC close to the start of this morning’s opening La Breole – Selonnet

Hyundai boss Andrea Adamo believes his World Rally Championship team “cannot be proud” of its Rally Monte Carlo showing so far. At the 2021 opener, Thierry Neuville and new co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe are the highest-placed i20 WRC crew in fourth place after three days of competition, seven seconds off a podium spot, while team-mate Dani

Sebastien Ogier has grabbed the lead from Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans in the Monte Carlo Rally on the third day of this year’s World Rally Championship opener. After Friday’s action, Ogier had lost half a minute following a puncture on the penultimate stage of the day, although he immediately reclaimed 16 seconds from Evans before

The BMC Mini rally team of the 1960s revelled in the dark arts of finding every advantage available, but not everybody approved. NICK GARTON reflects on the disputed 1966 Monte Carlo Rally and argues that its vigorous scrutineering was merely fighting fire with fire The 1966 Monte Carlo Rally is probably the most debated result

Sebastien Ogier will “take more risks” to win WRC’s Rally Monte-Carlo for the eighth time after his time on Friday’s final stage moved him back into contention. Ogier lost the lead of the World Rally Championship’s season opener on the penultimate stage when the front-left tyre on his Yaris WRC punctured and cost him the

Brit Elfyn Evans holds the overnight lead in the Monte Carlo Rally after Toyota seized the initiative on the second day of this year’s World Rally Championship opener. The first two stages on Friday were held in the dark and, with uncertain conditions in the mountains, this led to plenty of hesitancy amongst the crews

Ott Tanak says he is confident of giving a better account of himself in his second World Rally Championship season at Hyundai, after a disappointing title defence in 2020. The Estonian caught many WRC paddock figures off guard when he decided to leave Toyota in the wake of his title-winning 2019 campaign and join Thierry