Rally

Ott Tanak took a relatively untroubled home victory on Rally Estonia to record his first World Rally Championship win for Hyundai since joining this season – ahead of team-mate Craig Breen. Tanak and Breen merely had to minimise the risks in the six final stages as they held first and second respectively overnight, but there

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak took the fourth round of the 2020 World Rally Championship in Estonia by the scruff of the neck and leads after Saturday’s 10 stages. The reigning world champion survived a day in which many fancied runners found their progress stymied by tyre wear and punctures on the fast, flowing gravel stages. As

M-Sport Ford’s Esapekka Lappi drew first blood in the restart of the 2020 World Rally Championship, claiming top spot on the first stage of Rally Estonia. Lappi swept to top spot after overcoming seven-time champion and current points leader Sébastien Ogier, as the first rally since the COVID-19-enforced hiatus got underway this evening in front

Ott Tanak has topped the shakedown for Rally Estonia as the World Rally Championship finally returns to action following the COVID-19 hiatus. Reigning world champion Tanak got off to a flying start to the event on the 6.23km pre-event shakedown stage at Abissaare as the fastest driver through the stage, stopping the clock late in

Rally Germany has become the latest World Rally Championship round to be cancelled, while Rally Italy is moving three weeks earlier to avoid clashing with Formula 1’s Imola race. The Bostalsee-based Tarmac event in south-west Germany becomes the latest WRC casualty of the COVID-19 outbreak and joins Argentina, Portugal, Finland, Kenya, New Zealand, Wales Rally

Sebastien Loeb will make his second outing of the 2020 World Rally Championship season with Hyundai in next month’s Rally Turkey. The nine-time champion will join Hyundai’s full-season drivers Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak for the Marmaris-based event at the wheel of a third i20 Coupe WRC. It will mark Loeb’s first top-level outing since

Rally Japan has been axed from the 2020 World Rally Championship calendar and been replaced by the Belgian Ypres Rally. Japan had kept its slot on this year’s schedule when the FIA revealed a refreshed calendar in the wake of multiple events being cancelled following the global coronavirus pandemic. The country’s first WRC event since

This week in 1998 Colin McRae decided to leave Subaru, the team that had made him a World Rally champion, to join Ford. In two pieces, published in the 13 August 1998 and 1 October 1998 issues of the magazine, Autosport found out why “I could stay with Subaru and possibly be there for the

The World Rally Championship’s new managing director says the flexibility of Rally Turkey organisers in changing dates should help allow at least one extra round to join this season’s calendar. Originally due to run from 25-27 September, the Marmaris-based event has been brought forward by a week by the Turkish Automobile Sports Federation (TOSFED), paving

Sebastien Ogier is poised to stay in the World Rally Championship in 2021, with a new deal with current employer Toyota close to being signed. Six-time WRC champion Ogier stated in August last year that he would retire from the sport at the end of the 2020 season, although at that point he hadn’t left

The World Rally Championship has revised the starting order rules for the series’ return to action on the gravel of Estonia in September. The WRC has been on hiatus since Rally Mexico in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has seen landmark events including Argentina, Finland, New Zealand, Wales and the returning Safari Rally

Ott Tanak says the resumption of the World Rally Championship in his Estonian homeland in September is the perfect opportunity to reignite his drivers’ title defence with new employer Hyundai. Having run as a successful promotional event last year, the East European country made the step up to the top flight earlier this month, striking

Former Hyundai World Rally Championship competitor Andreas Mikkelsen believes his new role as Pirelli’s tyre development driver will aid his attempts to secure a full-time seat in the series again. October’s Wales Rally GB was the last time Mikkelsen competed in the category, with his sixth-place finish bringing the curtain down on a turbulent two-year

Updated FIA guidelines designed to allow future rounds of the World Rally Championship to be held safely in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic have been welcomed by team bosses. The list of measures set out in the 81-page ‘Return To Motor Sport’ paper are “sensible” according to M-Sport’s Richard Millener, while his counterpart at

The World Rally Championship has revealed a revised calendar for the coronavirus-halted 2020 season, with the campaign now set to resume in Estonia in September. The 2020 season was put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic after just three rounds and several ensuing rallies have since been cancelled, including Finland, New Zealand and Rally GB,

Organisers of Rally New Zealand fear it could be “cast into the wilderness” after it failed to appear on the draft calendar of events for next year’s World Rally Championship. Last Friday, the World Motor Sport Council named the nine locations that have contracts to stage a round of the series in 2021, including Monte

Rising World Rally Championship star Oliver Solberg will return to his roots by racing in the opening rounds of RallyX Nordic at Holjes in Sweden next week. Son of 2003 WRC champion Petter Solberg, Oliver began his career racing crosskarts in Scandinavia, then became the youngest ever Supercar competitor by racing a rallycross Supercar in

Prodrive says it will be “disappointed” if its rivals don’t perceive it as a “potential winner” when it makes its Dakar debut next year under the Bahrain Raid Xtreme banner. Prodrive announced in February that it will enter the prestigious rally raid from 2021 in a joint venture with Bahrain’s sovereign wealth Mumtalakat, and it

Motorsport UK is “optimistic” the UK will be represented in the World Rally Championship next year despite Rally GB not being included on an initial list of 2021 events. Autosport understands that two teams want a slimmed down calendar in 2021 comprising just 10 rounds, while WRC Promoter is pushing for 12, leaving 11 as

The organisers of the Ypres Rally have begun negotiations to host what could be Belgium’s first World Rally Championship event. The WRC has been hit by a string of cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving just five rallies remaining on the schedule – on top of the three events that were completed before the

Ex-World Rally Championship driver Kris Meeke could be handed a career lifeline as Pirelli’s tyre tester ahead of the marque’s return to the series in 2021. The Northern Irishman, a five-time WRC event winner, had been left without a drive for the 2020 season after being dropped by Toyota having spent just one season and

Organisers of Latvia’s World Rallycross Championship round, RA Events, are in talks with the World Rally Championship about hosting a round of the WRC this year. RA Events organises and promotes Rally Liepaja, a round of the European Rally Championship, which has been postponed this year until August 14-16. Following the latest cancellations of WRC

Toyota has decided against the introduction of its GR Yaris in the 2021 World Rally Championship, opting instead to continue using its current model. The Japanese manufacturer had originally planned to retire the current Yaris model after the end of the current season and replace it with a new contender based on the GR Yaris

When the rally world reconvenes after the Covid-19 hiatus it will be without one of its most ardent supporters and knowledgeable chroniclers, Martin Holmes, who died late last week after a long battle with cancer. Martin had been part of the sport since the 1950s as a journalist, photographer and competitor who last year made

The ASO has announced the Dakar Rally will run entirely in Saudi Arabia for a second successive year in 2021, but on a route that is “100% new”. The Dakar moved from South America to the Middle East last year, marking the start of the third chapter in the illustrious history of the rally-raid. Saudi

Fresh doubts have been cast over the viability of this season’s World Rally Championship following confirmation Wales Rally GB won’t take place for the first time in over 40 years. The Deeside-based event has become the third round in less than a week to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last Wednesday Rally Finland

Outgoing World Rally Championship chief Oliver Ciesla believes his series must return to key markets in the United States and China if it is to attract more manufacturer participation in the future. The WRC has been absent from the world’s two biggest car markets this millennium, after a planned event near Beijing in 2016 was

Leading World Rally Championship figures have told Autosport they are refusing to give up on the 2020 season, despite the cancellation of the Finnish and New Zealand rounds this week. Four events have now been called off this year because of COVID-19, leaving series promoters facing a battle as they attempt to safeguard half of

Rally New Zealand has become the fourth World Rally Championship round to get the axe as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was widely expected the Auckland-based event, scheduled for 3-6 September, would prove impossible with the New Zealand government having closed the country’s borders to shield itself from the worst of the coronavirus

Rally Finland has become the latest major motorsport event to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, further delaying the resumption of the 2020 World Rally Championship season. Finland was due to host the next round of the WRC on 6-9 August, but organiser AKK Sport announced on Wednesday that the event has now been