Rally

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 180km/h (112mph), while T3, T4 and T5 vehicles must stick to 130km/h (81mph). It comes after X-raid took victory in last year's Dakar with Carlos Sainz at the wheel of one of its two-wheel drive Mini John Cooper Works buggies, which ...Keep reading View the full article

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 helped Audi to break several records en route to back-to-back titles in 2019-20, the marque’s decision to quit the DTM after 2020 suggested that the motor could be headed to a museum after just two years ...Keep reading View the full article

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 off all the alarms at organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). But, in the face of the restrictions imposed by Saudi Arabia to limit the spread of COVID-19, ASO managed to charter 18 flights to guarantee the presence of the competitors for the event. In the ...Keep reading View the full article

Last year's inaugural running of the Dakar in Saudi Arabia marked the first time KTM had been defeated in the motorcycle category since 2000, as Honda man Ricky Brabec's victory put an end to the Mattighofen firm's streak of 18 consecutive wins. However, Viladoms believes that such a massive run of success had the effect of making KTM's success appear easy to outsiders, something he says will ...Keep reading View the full article

In response to the deaths of riders Paulo Goncalves and Edwin Straver on this year's first Saudi Arabian edition, a number of changes have been made to improve safety by rally organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) ahead of this January's event. The most controversial change is the move to limit the riders to only six rear tyres for the 12-day rally in an ostensible bid to encourage riders ...Keep reading View the full article

Barreda has never won the Dakar despite having amassed 24 stage wins since his 2011 debut, tying him for fifth on the all-time list with Hubert Auriol. The Spanish rider came into this year's first Saudi Arabian edition carrying a rib injury, which was exacerbated by two crashes in the space of four days, and he finally finished seventh overall as teammate Ricky Brabec scored Honda's first win ...Keep reading View the full article

Oliveras had tested positive for coronavirus over three weeks ago and said he has fully recovered since. However, the Spaniard has failed to return a negative test result before flying to Saudi Arabia for the start of the Dakar. On Monday, the team announced that Alex Wincocq will be Oliveras' last-minute replacement alongside Roma. "It is incredibly disappointing for Dani (Oliveras) not ...Keep reading View the full article

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 wins between them in the two rallies held since then. But the two established manufacturers have a new potent challenger in 2021 in the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, which has signed WRC legend ...Keep reading View the full article

Rally Monte Carlo is scheduled to kick off the series on January 21-24, although, at 174 competitive miles (280km), next year’s instalment will be the shortest in its history. Under strict COVID-19 restrictions implemented by the French government the organising Automobile Club de Monaco has decided to shelve a proposed Thursday morning shakedown stage for crews and, in a surprise move ...Keep reading View the full article

Loeb is returning to the Dakar after a one-year absence to helm the new Bahrain Raid Xtreme outfit, where he will be joined by 2015 winner Nani Roma. The joint venture between British engineering firm Prodrive and the Bahrain sovereign fund has prepared an all new contender named the BRX1 for its Dakar debut in Saudi Arabia next month, featuring a bespoke 3.5-litre turbocharged petrol ...Keep reading View the full article

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 7646km (4750 miles). The Northern Irishman is competing in the world-famous rally raid event for the first time, and had originally linked up with PH Sport in talks to compete in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and Dubai Baja, before both events were axed due to the COVID-19 ...Keep reading View the full article

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 been selected by Toyota president Akio Toyoda. Latvala will "bring a driver’s perspective” to its management team of project director Yuichiro Haruna, sporting director Kaj Lindstrom, and technical director Tom ...Keep reading View the full article

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 the cards for the following season. The move to the Alzenau-based team marks Solberg's step up to a full factory seat, having driven in association with Skoda Motorsport through this year, and competed in both ...Keep reading View the full article

However, while an FIA announcement stated that WMSC members had “been updated with the aim of finalising a decision at the beginning of 2021,” about a new promotor for the series, following the departure of World RX promotor IMG, no further details were released about who will take on the role of commercial rights holder for rallycross' top-flight from next year. Compared to previous ...Keep reading View the full article

Sweden was one of the three countries to successfully hold a WRC event on its original slot this year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and led to a series of cancellations. The season finally resumed with Estonia in September after a major calendar revamp, and experienced further changes after that, with notably the Ypres Rally in Belgium cancelled and an extra event in Monza added to ...Keep reading View the full article

Sordo, who won at this year's WRC Rally Italy at Sardinia, will alternate with Breen in the car that the duo shared with Sebastian Loeb in 2020, although Hyundai confirmed earlier this year that the nine-time champion will not continue for a third season with the team. In a season cut down to just seven rounds by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sordo took part in three rounds - Mexico, Italy and the ...Keep reading View the full article

Ekstrom, who made his return to World RX this year and finished runner-up in the championship, will venture into cross-country style competition by racing in the inaugural campaign of the Extreme E series next season with the ABT CUPRA squad. But before that, he will join X-Raid for the German outfit’s first project outside the Dakar’s headline T1 category, to drive a YXZ1000R ...Keep reading View the full article

The Frenchman won the Italian event by 13.9 seconds from outgoing champion Ott Tanak to become only the second person in history (after Juha Kankkunen) to win the series with three different manufacturers. Evans carried a 14-point buffer going to Monza, a late addition to this year's schedule, and appeared to be on course to end the UK's 19 year wait for a WRC champion. But an off on the ...Keep reading View the full article

It was a relatively low-key run around the Villa Reale for the surviving crews, following the drama on Saturday’s closed road stages in the mountains. Ogier won the first stage of the day with his Toyota teammate Kalle Rovanpera second, which helped to open up the gap to the pursuing Hyundais of Dani Sordo and Ott Tanak. Early leader Sordo slipped to third behind Tanak, then reasserted ...Keep reading View the full article

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 the leaderboard. Sordo's priority is to defend Hyundai's slender seven-point lead in the manufacturers' championship, and he dug deep to take back five seconds on the next stage but could offer little resistance to Evans, who won ...Keep reading View the full article