Rally

The rally's 1.9km curtain-raiser uses the city's trotting track and had been scheduled to take place at 2000 local time on Thursday. But following a meeting between Rally Sweden chiefs, the FIA, WRC Promoter and representatives of the WRC teams, the decision was made to run stage as the second part of shakedown. The change required the granting of an FIA waiver. A statement from the Rally ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak rolled off the side of a ravine on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally on the first full day of the event, which ruled him out of competing again that weekend. He heads into this week’s Rally Sweden as the reigning winner, having taken his first Swedish victory last year with Toyota. Owing to his crash on round one, Tanak will start well behind his top WRC rivals in the running ...Keep reading View the full article

A video released by the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team on Friday reveals the new car being tested by development driver Juho Hanninen on heavy snow in Finland. The GR Yaris road car on which the WRC challenger will be based was revealed in January at the Tokyo Auto Salon (pictured top), boasting a 257bhp three-cylinder engine and four-wheel-drive, setting it apart from the majority ...Keep reading View the full article

The British engineering firm, which claimed WRC drivers' titles with Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg and a run of three straight manufacturers' titles between 1995 and 1997 when it operated the Subaru world rally team, will form a new company known as Prodrive International for its first assault on the legendary off-road race next year. Prodrive will build two works cars, which ...Keep reading View the full article

Event organisers had set a deadline of February 3 for making a decision on whether the rally would go ahead after a lack of snow build-up on the stages, but extended that deadline until one day later. Now the decision has been made that the event will go ahead with around 180km of stages, although the final itinerary is still to be confirmed. Friday’s stages will be repeated on Saturday ...Keep reading View the full article

The rally is set to take place on February 13-16, but warmer-than-usual conditions in Sweden have meant the usual thick layer of snow hasn’t formed on the surface of the stages. A decision on whether the event would go ahead had been expected for February 3, but that has been extended. Organisers are in discussions with the manufacturers, but the Rally Sweden historic event has already been ...Keep reading View the full article

The decision to call up Breen in place of nine-time World Rally champion Loeb was announced on Monday in the wake of the latter's disappointing sixth-place Rally Monte Carlo finish. However, the 45-year-old revealed that Hyundai team boss Andrea Adamo gave him the option of whether to participate in Sweden or not, and that he decided against it. "I didn't have any particular desire to go [to ...Keep reading View the full article

The six-time World Rally champion fell 12.6 seconds short of Hyundai rival Thierry Neuville during the 2020 curtain-raiser in his first competitive outing as a Toyota driver, ending a streak of Monte Carlo wins dating back to 2014. Although he said he didn't feel comfortable to push hard in pursuit of Neuville, Ogier bolstered his points haul by finishing second on the Power Stage, leapfrogging ...Keep reading View the full article

The future of Rally Australia in its most recent guise is under doubt, thanks to both unrest from competitors over the Coffs Harbour base, and New Zealand being added to the 2020 schedule at the expense of Australia as part of what is understood to be a rotation plan between the two. A campaign has now kicked off to return Rally Australia to Perth, with WA Liberal Party leader Harvey launching ...Keep reading View the full article

The 18-year-old son of 2003 World Rally champion Petter will make his first appearance in a Skoda next month in Sweden, with details of his programme yet to be confirmed. He will also continue to drive his Volkswagen Polo on selected rallies, having done so in last weekend's Rally Monte Carlo - although he was not registered to score points. "It's a fantastic honour and a really huge honour ...Keep reading View the full article

Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle, who accompanied him during his part-time schedule with Hyundai last year, will line up alongside the team's two full-time drivers, reigning champion Ott Tanak and Monte Carlo Rally winner Thierry Neuville. Though he'd showed solid speed in his two WRC outings with the Korean manufacturer in 2019, Breen was not named as part of Hyundai's plans for the 2020 season ...Keep reading View the full article

Hyundai driver Neuville was in imperious form on Sunday, winning both stages in the first loop, and he maintained that as he won the 18.41km La Bollene Vesubie - Peira Cava test, 1.4s ahead of the Toyota Yaris of Ogier. It looked like Ogier was going to win the Wolf Power Stage, but Neuville matched Ogier’s time to take the stage win by a few hundredths of a second, meaning the Hyundai i20 ...Keep reading View the full article

Neuville carried his strong form into the final day to dominate the morning loop, winning the opening SS13 stage. That stage win meant he closed the gap to leader Evans down to 1.4s, and overhauled Sebastien Ogier for second place in the process. In the following La Cabanette - Col De Braus test, the Hyundai driver went 5.4s faster than the Evans to take the lead with a four-second gap to ...Keep reading View the full article

Evans went into the afternoon loop 4.8s ahead of his Yaris teammate Ogier, but lost all of that advantage as Ogier went second fastest in the St Ledger Les Melezes - La batie Neuve stage, leaving both drivers tied for the lead as they went into the final run of the day. In SS12, La Breole - Selonnet it looked like Evans might have lost his rally lead after going off the road slightly towards ...Keep reading View the full article

Ogier had started the morning with a 1.2s lead over his teammate, and extended it by 1.6s in the opening SS9 stage, but Evans fought back in the La Breole-Slonnet loop to win the stage by 7.6s and take the lead of the rally by 4.8 seconds. Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville remains third, having won the St-Leger Les Melezes - La Batie Neuve test, but the 2019 WRC runner-up lost 14 seconds in the ...Keep reading View the full article

Six-time WRC Monte Carlo Rally winner Ogier closed in on Evans by topping the first two stages of the afternoon’s three-stage loop, and then on the final stage of the day got ahead of Evans by 1.2 seconds to lead a Toyota 1-2 at the rally’s halfway point. Ogier on the afternoon’s opening stage, the 12.4-mile Curbans - Venterol test, reduced his deficit to leader Evans from 9.7s to 3.3s ...Keep reading View the full article

Evans topped all three of the morning’s stages in his Yaris, to establish a lead of 8.9 seconds over Neuville. Evans took the overall lead from the 2019 runner-up on the day’s second stage, having on the opening Curbans - Venterol test slashed Neuville’s overnight lead to just 5.4s, and jumped to second place overall, with a mark 20s quicker than Neuville’s. Neuville had to restart ...Keep reading View the full article

Straver, who was riding a KTM 450 EXC in the 'Original by Motul' subcategory of the Dakar that forbids assistance crews, crashed during the penultimate stage of the Saudi Arabia-based marathon on January 16. It was reported he had "no heartbeat for 10 minutes" in the aftermath of the accident but was subsequently resuscitated by medics arriving at the scene. He was transported by helicopter ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak left the road halfway into the morning's second stage, the 12.8-mile Saint-Clement-sur-Durance – Freissinieres SS4 test. Tanak ran out of road at high speed exiting a right-left kink and his i20 Coupe WRC dropped down a ditch then entered a lengthy barrel roll. Both Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja appeared unharmed as they exited the car. Tanak was placed fourth overall at the ...Keep reading View the full article

Neuville was 6.4 seconds slower than Toyota's 2020 arrival Ogier on the opening Malijai - Puimichel test, but went more than 25s faster than anyone else on stage two as he coped far better with the icier conditions than the rest of the World Rally Car contenders. That left the 2019 WRC runner-up with a 19.1s advantage over Ogier heading into Friday's first full day of stages, with Tanak third ...Keep reading View the full article