Rally

Carlos Sainz Sr says he’s “fed up” with this year’s Dakar Rally roadbook after getting lost for the second time in three days. Having already lost 31 minutes in Tuesday’s third stage with navigational difficulties, three-time winner Sainz slipped further away from the top runners after losing his way in the early sections of Stage

Dakar Rally stewards have explained why Sebastien Loeb was handed a five-minute penalty for speeding in a controlled speed zone on Wednesday’s Stage 4 of the 2021 event. Nine-time World Rally Champion Loeb took to social media on Wednesday evening to slam what he called an “incompetent” penalty after his Bahrain Raid Xtreme machine was

Sebastien Loeb has reacted furiously to the speeding penalty given to him after Stage 4 of the 2021 Dakar Rally, saying “there is no room for incompetence or incompetents”. Loeb, the nine-time World Rally Champion, finished fourth on Wednesday’s stage from Wadi-Ad-Dawasir to Riyadh, but received a five-minute penalty for speeding. That relegated him to

Toyota’s Nasser Al-Attiyah has recorded his third consecutive stage victory of the 2021 Dakar Rally on Wednesday, narrowly beating overall leader Stephane Peterhansel of X-raid Mini. Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel, along with Henk Lategan and Carlos Sainz, made Stage 4 the most openly-contested battle of Dakar so far, with the quartet separated by just a minute

Stephane Peterhansel says the Dakar Rally has become “kind of dangerous” in 2021 due to high average speeds witnessed in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. After organiser ASO admitted that some stages in the inaugural Saudi-based Dakar event last year were “very fast”, a new route that is “80-90% new” compared to the previous edition

M-Sport will continue its policy of blooding young drivers in the World Rally Championship by adding WRC2 competitor Adrien Fourmaux to its 2021 line-up, alongside Gus Greensmith and Teemu Suninen. Announcing M-Sport’s three-man squad, team principal Richard Millener said the programmes he has drawn up are designed to “bring out the best in each driver”.

Toyota’s Nasser Al-Attiyah nearly halved the deficit to Stephane Peterhansel after claiming a second successive stage victory in Tuesday’s third stage of the Dakar Rally. Three-time winner Al-Attiyah was left on the backfoot when he lost 12 minutes to the leaders in the opening stage on Sunday. After gaining three minutes back in Stage 2,

Defending Dakar Rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr lost over half an hour on the third stage of the 2021 event due to a navigation problem having got “stuck on a point”. Sainz, who led the opening stage of the 2021 Dakar Rally, suffered a frustrating third day of action by ending it 33m34s off overall

Toyota’s Nasser Al-Attiyah says the 2021 Dakar Rally is one “where we need to attack from day one” due to the “open” nature of the battle for overall victory. First in the prologue on Saturday, Al-Attiyah scored guided his Toyota to victory on Monday’s second stage on the 284-mile run from Bisha to Wadi Ad-Dawasir,

Nasser Al-Attiyah put Toyota on top in the second stage of the 2021 Dakar Rally on Monday, as Stephane Peterhansel took the overall lead from X-raid Mini team-mate Carlos Sainz. Three-time event winner Sainz started first on the road in the 457km test from Bisha to Wadi Ad-Dawasir following his victory in Stage 1 on

Audi’s Class One-spec DTM engine could find its way into the manufacturer’s upcoming ‘electric’ Dakar Rally challenger in 2022, Autosport has learned. Audi is believed to have invested upwards of 10 million euros to build a two-litre, turbocharged petrol engine for the DTM’s move to full Class One regulations in 2019. While the new engine

Defending Dakar Rally winner Carlos Sainz edged out Stephane Peterhansel in the 2021 event’s opening stage to establish an early 1-2 for the X-raid Mini team in Saudi Arabia. The lead in the cars category changed hands several times during the 277km stage from Jeddah to Bisha, as overnight leader Nasser Al-Attiyah – who topped

Rally legend Carlos Sainz says there is “double the pressure” on competitors in the 2021 Dakar Rally due to the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s edition of the rally-raid kicked off with the Prologue in Saudi Arabia on Saturday amid renewed restrictions around the world following the emergence of a new strain

Toyota has welcomed the imposition of a speed limit for this year’s Dakar Rally, believing it should prevent rival squad X-raid Mini from “running away” on the event’s faster stages. Revised FIA Cross Country regulations for 2021 restrict competitors in the T1 (which includes Toyota, X-raid and Prodrive’s new BRX1 contender) and T2 classes to

Rally legend Carlos Sainz believes the fight for overall honours in the 2021 Dakar Rally will be between Toyota and X-raid Mini. The Dakar has proved to be a two-horse race between Toyota and X-raid since Peugeot pulled the plug on its factory programme after three successive wins between 2016-18, with the two marques sharing

Dakar Rally organisers ASO explains how it managed to work within the strict confines of host country Saudi Arabia’s coronavirus measures to ensure the running of the 2021 event. The closure of land, sea and air borders of Saudi Arabia just 13 days before the start of the second Dakar in the Arabian Peninsula set

World Rally Championship race winner Kris Meeke says participating in the 2021 Dakar Rally without previous rally raid experience will be “a big challenge”. Meeke is driving a PH Sport Zephyr T3 car, which uses the commercially available Can-Am Maverick X3 off-road vehicle as a base, but with an FIA-homologated tubular chassis and bespoke BOS

Andreas Mikkelsen says he wants to “dominate” every WRC2 and European Rally Championship round he starts in 2021 as he still targets a full-time World Rally Championship return. The former Volkswagen and Hyundai driver has announced he will contest both series in full next season at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia Rally 2 evo

World Rally Championship veteran Kris Meeke “felt like a kid at Christmas” during his first test for PH Sport, with whom he will compete in the 2021 Dakar Rally. Meeke will drive PH Sport’s Zephyr T3 in next month’s Dakar Rally, which will take place in Saudi Arabia across a total of 4750 miles. The

FIA rally director Yves Matton says he is “quite confident” the opening round of the 2021 World Rally Championship will go ahead, despite the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Rally Monte Carlo is scheduled to kick off the series on Thursday 21 January, although, at 174 competitive miles, next year’s instalment will be the

Sebastien Loeb says the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team is entering the Dakar Rally expecting to be competitive against established outfits like Toyota and X-raid Mini. Loeb is returning to the Dakar after a one-year absence to helm the new Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, where he will be joined by 2015 winner Nani Roma. The

Oliver Solberg has been confirmed as a Hyundai Motorsport driver for the next two seasons of the World Rally Championship, beginning in WRC2 in 2021. The 19-year-old son of 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg will spearhead Hyundai Motorsport’s WRC2 assault next year, with a graduation to a World Rally Car understood to be on

Former World Rally Championship runner-up Jari-Matti Latvala has been appointed team principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad, as the team confirms its full 2021 line-up. With Tommi Makinen stepping down as team boss at the end of the 2020 season to become Toyota’s motorsport advisor, Latvala will move into the team principal role having

The WRC has announced that February’s Rally Sweden will not go ahead as planned, becoming the first event on the series’ 2021 calendar to be cancelled due to coronavirus. Sweden was one of the three countries to successfully hold a WRC rally on its original slot this year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom will make his debut on the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in January, driving a new Yamaha SxS machine prepared by the experienced X-Raid team. The 2016 World Rallycross Champion, who finished runner-up on his return to World RX this year, will venture into cross-country style competition by racing in

World Rally Championship veterans Dani Sordo and Craig Breen have been retained by Hyundai for 2021, and will share the team’s third car alongside Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville. Sordo, who won this year’s Rally Italy on Sardinia, will alternate with Breen in the car that the duo shared with Sebastian Loeb in 2020, although

Sebastian Ogier feels the World Rally Championship promoters should explore the possibility of more showcase-type events for future calendars following the success of Rally Monza. Rally Monza became a late replacement event on the COVID-19-hit 2020 WRC calendar, after 10 events in total were cancelled this season either due to the global health pandemic, while

Sebastien Ogier has revealed he will hold off fully celebrating being crowned World Rally Champion for the seventh time in eight seasons because of the ongoing COVID-19 health pandemic. The Frenchman won Rally Monza by 13.9 seconds from outgoing WRC title holder Ott Tanak to become only the second person in history to win the

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier secured his seventh World Rally Championship title with victory on Rally Monza as Hyundai successfully defended its manufacturers crown. Pre-event points leader Elfyn Evans crashed out in snowy conditions on Saturday’s SS11, opening the door for team-mate and rally leader Ogier to overturn his 14-point pre-weekend deficit. The Frenchman’s winning margin was

Sebastien Ogier has taken the lead of Rally Monza after Saturday morning’s opening stages, as Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans remains on course for the World Rally Championship title. Having spent Friday on routes around the Monza circuit, the field completed its first loop of mountain road stages on Saturday. Ogier immediately threw down the gauntlet