Rally

Sebastien Ogier is confident a change in fortunes in this season’s World Rally Championship will allow him to reel in Toyota team-mate and current leader of the competition, Elfyn Evans. With two rounds remaining – the Ypres and Monza rallies – Ogier is still in the hunt for a seventh WRC drivers’ crown after trimming

The next generation of World Rally Car will adopt a bespoke 100kW plug-in hybrid system after the final ‘Rally1’ technical regulations were agreed by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council. As well as giving crews a power boost on the stages, the technology is set to be used on road sections – as outlined by

Fresh from victory in Argentina, Carlos Sainz Sr’s World Rally Championship future was under serious consideration in 2004 as bigger priorities emerged. In Autosport’s 29 July issue, the Spaniard hints at what was to come both for himself and the WRC Up on the podium after Rally Argentina, Carlos Sainz’s face was a picture of

Senior government and tourism bosses in Northern Ireland are considering “in detail” a fresh business case for moving the UK World Rally Championship round across the Irish Sea in 2021. Having refused to entertain the idea for many months on the grounds it did not represent good value for money in the current climate, the

Sebastien Ogier believes the decision to extend this year’s World Rally Championship season with the late addition of December’s Rally Monza is “great news” for fans. Monza becomes the third entirely new event to join rallying’s top flight after Rally Estonia – the home round of defending World Rally champions Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja

World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans has said a top-five performance in last weekend’s Rally Italy was what he expected to come away with because of his road opening responsibilities. Evans finished fourth on the antepenultimate round of the championship to retain top spot in the WRC drivers’ standings despite his lead over Toyota team-mate

Dani Sordo will hold on to his Rally Italy win despite his Hyundai failing post-event scrutiny checks. An inspection of the Spaniard’s Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC showed the rear subframe to be underweight. The part in question was shown to total 9112g with the minimum permissible weight being 9136.5g. Checks were also carried out on

Hyundai’s Dani Sordo claimed his third World Rally Championship victory and his second in a row on Rally Italy, finishing just 5.1 seconds ahead of team-mate Thierry Neuville. Cooler conditions greeted the runners on Sunday morning where a loop of just two stages awaited which was to be run twice through the day. Toyota’s six-time

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi has no plans to compete at the 2020 Monza Rally as a wildcard at the new World Rally Championship finale, but hasn’t ruled it out. On Friday it was announced the WRC will end its current campaign with the Rally Monza event, which since 1978 has been held as a non-championship

Dani Sordo has maintained his lead over Sebastien Ogier on a dramatic second day of Rally Italy, with World Rally Championship standings leader Elfyn Evans up to fourth place. After being forced to sweep the stages on Friday, the championship-leading Toyotas of Sebastien Ogier and Evans were released from their burden in Saturday’s road order

The boss of Motorsport UK is “grateful” Rally GB will return to the World Rally Championship next year despite total funding required for the event not being currently in place. Yesterday the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council rubber stamped the calendar for 2021 with Britain one of 12 countries listed alongside Monte Carlo, newcomer Croatia,

Hyundai ‘super-sub’ Dani Sordo holds the overnight lead after Day 1 of the World Rally Championship’s Rally Italy, as standings leader Elfyn Evans ended the day fifth. Many of the front-runners elected to take a cautious approach on the opening stage of the day, which allowed M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen to shine. The Finn, who has

Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship has moved to an August date next year following a virtual meeting of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) members on Friday. The decision to include Rally GB in the Eurocentric twelve-round calendar ends months of speculation and means that the event will continue its long-held association

The FIA has announced that the 2020 World Rally Championship will conclude in Italy with the Monza Rally on 4-6 December. The Monza Rally will be the eighth round of the 2020 season, having been held annually since 1978 as a non-championship event. Over the years it has attracted stars from both the rallying and

Toyota driver Sebastien Ogier says he has not given up on taking a seventh World Rally Championship title this season, despite a costly retirement at last month’s Rally Turkey. Ogier lost his lead in the drivers’ standings to Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans when his Yaris WRC was struck down by terminal engine failure on the

The X-raid Mini team has retained Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel for the 2021 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. This will mark the duo’s third consecutive Dakar outing for Mini, both having joined the marque in 2019 following Peugeot’s withdrawal from the rally raid as a factory entrant. Sainz and Peterhansel will drive X-raid’s two

Craig Breen will rejoin Hyundai for the World Rally Championship’s first visit to Belgium in November, marking his third outing this season. Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle will team up with Hyundai team regulars Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak for the season-ending Ypres Rally. It will be his third WRC appearance of 2020, following previous

Nine-times World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb will return to the Dakar Rally in 2021 after signing a deal with the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team. Loeb will be a part of BRX’s two car line-up in the top-tier T1 category alongside 2014 winner Nani Roma, whose appointment was confirmed by the squad in September last

One-time World Rally champion Petter Solberg believes his chance to compete on the powerstage of next month’s Rally Italy is the perfect litmus test for Pirelli’s new gravel tyres. The Norwegian, who beat Sebastien Loeb to the 2003 WRC title, will get back behind the wheel of a WRC-spec Citroen C3 on the closing 4.28-mile

Elfyn Evans insists he is taking nothing for granted as the new leader of the World Rally Championship after Ott Tanak and Sebastien Ogier both suffered setbacks at Rally Turkey. The Welshman won the toughest event on the calendar by 35.2 seconds, and set the third fastest time on the powerstage to collect three bonus

Britain’s Elfyn Evans won Rally Turkey and soared back to the top of the World Rally Championship drivers’ standings after a day of high drama in the hillsides around Marmaris. The Welshman took a cautious approach throughout the most attritional event on the WRC calendar, and his reward was a third career WRC victory and

Ott Tanak says that he is “pretty sure” he will return for the closing leg of Rally Turkey tomorrow after retiring from Saturday’s opening test with steering failure. Reigning World Rally Champion Tanak’s Hyundai arrowed into a bank four miles from the end of the Yesilbelde stage, and although he managed to free it and

Thierry Neuville leads for Hyundai at the end of day two at Rally Turkey, delivering searing stage times as he bids to stay in the World Rally Championship title fight. Overnight leader Sebastien Loeb rolled the dice by putting two medium compound tyres on his Hyundai i20 WRC for the opening stage of the day

Nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb holds the overnight lead as the FIA World Rally Championship resumes in Turkey for the fifth round of its coronavirus-hit season. The veteran Frenchman, who is driving a limited schedule for Hyundai in 2020, made full use of his advantageous road position to head the field at the opening rest halt.

Craig Breen says he is “confident” of getting another shot with Hyundai for the Ypres Rally, having impressed with second place on the World Rally Championship’s return in Estonia. The Irishman, who is without a full-time seat in the sport’s top flight for 2020, impressed on the Estonian gravel by finishing just 22.2s behind team-mate

Dani Sordo will make his second World Rally Championship appearance of 2020 with Hyundai on next month’s Rally Italy after scoring his second career victory on the event last year. The 37-year-old Spaniard will drive Hyundai’s third works i20 Coupe WRC alongside regular drivers Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak in the Sardinia-based event on 8-11

Sebastien Ogier has pinned his failure to challenge World Rally Championship rivals Hyundai in last weekend’s Rally Estonia on troubles with tyres and set-up on his Toyota Yaris. Six-time WRC champion Ogier finished third in the championship’s first event since Rally Mexico back in March, behind Hyundai pair Ott Tanak and Craig Breen. It means

Selecting the greatest rally car of all time is the challenge of our latest special podcast, celebrating Autosport’s 70th birthday. The first issue of Autosport magazine appeared on 25 August 1950 and as part of our celebrations we have taken on the task of picking out the greatest competition cars from each of the major

World Rally Championship team bosses believe Rally Estonia deserves to be a regular fixture on the calendar following its debut last weekend. M-Sport’s Richard Millener and Hyundai’s Andrea Adamo told Autosport it was a successful debut for the Tartu-based competition, which was drafted in to bolster a calendar badly depleted by the coronavirus pandemic. Estonia

Rally Estonia winner Ott Tanak says the first World Rally Championship event in his home country was “one that I had to win”. The reigning WRC champion duly took victory on home soil last weekend, which was also his first win for the Hyundai team since joining at the start of 2020. His first win