Rally

Sebastien Ogier closed the final full day of Rally Monza on the cusp of his seventh World Rally Championship title after Elfyn Evans crashed out. The opening loop of three stages began with a stage win for Ogier by 8.3 seconds, pushing his Toyota Yaris past Hyundai’s overnight pacesetter Dani Sordo to the top of

World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans has crashed out on the 11th stage of Rally Monza, putting his title hopes in serious jeopardy with main rival Sebastien Ogier currently leading. As snow continued to fall on the closed road stages on the final full day of competitive stages, Evans slid wide near the end of

Dani Sordo holds the overnight lead after the first full day of Rally Monza, with both Sebastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans in title contention in the World Rally Championship decider. The Spaniard won the opening stage of the morning but then M-Sport Ford’s Esapekka Lappi gambled and put on one of the two sets of

The FIA World Rally Championship has collaborated with Motorsport Network to launch a dedicated Motorsport.tv channel ahead of the 2020 finale at Monza this weekend. Launching onto Motorsport Network’s OTT platform, the championship will deliver the latest news updates and most spectacular videos from the world of rallying to the network’s 56 million-strong digital monthly

In a few short days, Elfyn Evans could become Britain’s first World Rally champion in almost two decades and join elite company that includes Richard Burns, Colin McRae and Louise Aitken-Walker. She tells NICK GARTON what he needs to do at Monza A framed copy of Autosport from December 1990 was recently restored to pride

Sebastian Ogier opened the World Rally Championship’s Rally Monza on top of the leaderboard, with the Toyota driver closing out the first stage half a second ahead of Thierry Neuville. The WRC’s final event of 2020 is underway after an initial 4.3km (2.7mi) blast round the Villa Reale at Monza, with six-time champion Ogier taking

M-Sport Ford team principal Richard Millener believes that any of the World Rally Championship’s top drivers can win Rally Monza even with the safety net of snow tyres. Following a change to the supplementary regulations, teams will now be allowed to include eight snow tyres in their total allocation for the title-deciding event, with these

Elfyn Evans says his 2020 World Rally Championship title challenge can be put down to a feeling of being right at home at Toyota. Evans ended his 12-year association with M-Sport last November to join Tommi Makinen’s squad on a two-year deal, and currently has a 14-point advantage over team-mate Sebastien Ogier in the drivers

A unique World Rally Championship title decider awaits this weekend at Rally Monza, where the unexpected favourite will attempt to fend off a hungry pack anxious for him to stumble on unfamiliar territory. NICK GARTON outlines the contenders to watch And so here we are: the final instalment is upon us and the 2020 World

Sebastien Ogier says sealing a seventh World Rally Championship title in 2020 would mean less than his previous successes because of the drastically-shortened season. Ogier trails Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans by 14 points going into this week’s decider at Rally Monza in Italy. The Frenchman’s previous title successes came between 2013 and 2016 in a

The Dakar Rally has released details of the route for the 2021 edition, featuring nearly 5,000 competitive kilometres divided into 12 stages that are “80-90% new”. After months of uncertainty amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the 43rd running of the Dakar and the second to take place in Saudi Arabia will start on 3 January in

A hydrogen-powered contender will take on the Dakar Rally in 2024. Former World Rallycross team GCK Motorsport has launched a four-year off-road programme, starting with an all-electric vehicle and culminating in a hydrogen machine. French freeriding skier and rallycross driver Guerlain Chicherit’s squad has already started testing the new GCK e-BLAST 1. It won’t contest

On this day 15 years ago, Richard Burns sadly passed away due to cancer, exactly four years after claiming the 2001 World Rally crown. In an article originally published in Autosport magazine on 1 December 2005, David Evans recounts his incredible career along with tributes from those who knew him best Diagnosed with an astrocytoma

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans says the importance of this week’s pre-Rally Monza test cannot be underestimated ahead of next month’s final round of the World Rally Championship season. Evans holds a 14-point lead over Toyota team-mate and six-time champion Sebastien Ogier heading into Rally Monza, which is set to go ahead despite Italy’s ongoing coronavirus restrictions.

25 years ago today, Colin McRae became Britain’s first World Rally champion. In an interview published by Autosport magazine on 30 November 1995, he reflects on that famous triumph on the RAC and explains why F1 won’t tempt him away from the WRC The look says it all. Two hours into his reign as Britain’s

Three-time MotoGP race winner Franco Morbidelli will take part in next month’s World Rally Championship finale at Rally Monza with Hyundai Rally Team Italia. WRC organisers announced earlier this year its coronavirus-affected 2020 season would be brought to a close on 3-6 December with the ACI Rally Monza event. Rally Monza has typically featured MotoGP

Sebastien Ogier will stay with Toyota in the World Rally Championship in 2021, deferring his plans to retire from the top echelon of rallying for at least another year. Autosport revealed back in July that Ogier had expressed his intention to contest the 2021 WRC season to Toyota, and the Japanese marque was also not

Hyundai boss Andrea Adamo suggested Dani Sordo is better equipped to help the team retain its World Rally Championship manufacturers’ crown after choosing him over Craig Breen for Rally Monza. The Alzenau-based squad clinched its first makes’ title last year and Adamo currently sits at the top of the standings by just seven points over

Sebastien Loeb has conducted his first test with Prodrive’s new BRX T1 machine ahead of next year’s Dakar Rally, believing he and the team “will do something quite good”. The nine-time World Rally champion will compete with the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team in next year’s off-road endurance event, which takes place on 3-15 January

A special documentary marking 25 years since Colin McRae became the first British driver to win the World Rally title will be broadcast later this week. Called ‘Colin McRae: 25 Years A Champion’, the programme features interviews with McRae’s team boss at the time Dave Richards and McRae’s father Jimmy, who is reunited with the

Andreas Mikkelsen has said he does not expect an easy ride on his return to Rally Islas Canarias next week. Mikkelsen will drive the same Topp-Cars-run Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo that carried him to victory on Rally Hungary earlier this month. Having dominated on his first competitive outing of the season to record a straightforward

M-Sport has completed its Ladder of Opportunity strategy with the new Fiesta Rally3, meaning it now builds a car for each of the World Rally Championship’s five-tier class structure. Designed and engineered at the Cumbrian team’s Krakow facilities in Poland, order books for the four-wheel-drive supermini – which costs £89,875 excluding VAT – are set

Andreas Mikkelsen has reiterated his desire to find a path back to the World Rally Championship for the final round of the season next month in Italy. A three-time winner in the series, Mikkelsen has been without a drive in the WRC’s top division since he was released by Hyundai at the end of last

Andreas Mikkelsen recorded a comfortable victory at Rally Hungary and believes the performance should go a long way to silencing those who doubt him. On his first competitive outing in almost a year, the Norwegian led the European Rally Championship tarmac event for all but one stage to finish over 90 seconds clear of top

Former Hyundai WRC driver Hayden Paddon has warned rallying runs the risk of being “left behind” the longer it takes to embrace less polluting renewable energies. Paddon made the comments at the official unveiling of his new electric car at Hyundai Motors in New Zealand, a project that has taken only eighteen months and just

Reigning World Rally Champion Ott Tanak believes the series faces the threat of being mothballed in 2021 unless organisers can establish how to run events safely during the coronavirus pandemic. Only five of the rallies that made up the original World Rally Championship calendar for this year went ahead as planned, with these far outweighed

FIA Rally Director Yves Matton thinks Ypres Rally organisers have “proven” their case for hosting future World Rally Championship events even though it failed to go ahead because of coronavirus. Just three weeks before the rally was due to make its bow as the series’ penultimate round, it had to be abandoned as the number

The World Rally Championship’s inaugural visit to Belgium for the Ypres Rally is off due to restrictions in the wake of an increase in COVID-19 cases in the country. Added to the heavily-disrupted 2020 WRC schedule in August as a replacement for the cancelled Rally Japan, the Ypres Rally had been set to take place

Former Volkswagen and Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Andreas Mikkelsen is set to make his first rally appearance of 2020 on next month’s Rally Hungary. Mikkelsen will start the European Rally Championship round in a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo owned by the Topp-Cars Rally Team. The Norwegian will be eligible to score ERC points as

The first examples of Hyundai Motorsport’s newly-unveiled World Rally Championship support series challenger are set to be delivered to customers next summer once an “extensive testing” programme has been completed. The Alzenau-based squad claims the new Rally2 car will continue the success enjoyed by its R5 predecessor, with key development work to be overseen by