Rally

This year, Rovanpera became the fourth different driver in as many years to win the title in a Skoda Fabia R5, taking honours in the newly split-off WRC2 Pro category with five wins. The 19-year-old Finn follows Esapekka Lappi, Pontus Tidemand and Jan Kopecky in becoming WRC2 champion, and has landed a factory Toyota seat for 2020. Skoda had already scaled back from five to two factory cars ...Keep reading View the full article

The new initiative, which will follow in the footsteps of the circuit racing Red Bull Junior Team that produced Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel and grand prix winners Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, will be run in partnership with off-road racing mainstay Overdrive. Also a major contributor to Toyota's Dakar efforts, Overdrive has built and designed a 4x4 prototype under the ...Keep reading View the full article

Two-time Formula 1 champion Alonso completed two-and-a-half days of running with his Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa team alongside co-driver Marc Coma, which will be his last running before the start of the Saudi Arabian event on January 5. The main objective of the test, which concluded on Tuesday, was for the Spaniard to continue gaining experience in reading the terrain in the dunes ...Keep reading View the full article

Breen impressed the team with his first WRC outing of 2019 in Finland, where he was sixth until he ceded the spot for his teammate Thierry Neuville's title hopes. Mikkelsen finished fourth in the championship for the squad, despite missing a number of events as part of Hyundai's driver rotation. Both drivers helped the team to its first WRC manufacturers' title in 2019, but the three-car ...Keep reading View the full article

The Frenchman admits the new world champion's decision to leave Toyota was a surprise, but he's focusing his energies on working alongside his childhood hero Makinen. Motorsport.com revealed Tanak would leave Toyota bound for Hyundai in October after the Estonian was unable to agree terms to extend his two-year stay in a Yaris WRC. Asked how he intended to survive his season with Toyota ...Keep reading View the full article

The Tommi Makinen-led Toyota Gazoo Racing project entered the third year of the marque’s return to the World Rally Championship in 2019 but proved to be the benchmark in the world’s top rally series in the hands of Estonian star Tanak. Tanak, who has won the Rally Driver of the Year award tonight, guided the Yaris to six wins from the 13 rallies run this season, beating Hyundai-backed ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak took his first WRC title in 2019 - before then making a shock switch to Hyundai for his title defence next year - managing the impressive feat of preventing Sebastien Ogier from taking seven crowns in a row. Winning the Rally Driver of the Year award means Tanak also ends Ogier's dominance of the award, the Frenchman having won the last six. The Toyota driver won six of the 12 rounds ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak made a shock switch to Hyundai on a two-year deal after wrapping up this year's WRC crown for Toyota, and had his first taste of the car in which he'll attempt to defend his title on Thursday in the French Alps. The Estonian, who joins Thierry Neuville, Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo at Hyundai for 2020, says he is already convinced that he'll be in a position to fight for the top prize ...Keep reading View the full article

Ferrari endured a run of headaches in 2019, with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc clashing over slipstream assistance at Monza, team orders in Singapore and Russia, and then crashing into each other in Brazil. Speaking ahead of the FIA Prize Gala in Paris, Alonso laughed off a suggestion that he had a reputation for being ‘self-centered’ “I think the reputation is always one thing ...Keep reading View the full article

Meeke joined Toyota for the 2019 WRC season alongside Jari-Matti Latvala and Hyundai-bound Ott Tanak, after being dropped by Citroen part-way through the 2018 season. In his single season with the Japanese manufacturer, Meeke scored points on all but three rounds and made the podium with a second-place finish in Germany. He and co-driver Seb Marshall finished sixth in the championship, four ...Keep reading View the full article

The World RX schedule was published with two TBC’s at the end of October, and with the Latvian round having been announced a fortnight ago, Russia’s addition to the schedule completes the calendar. The Russian event will take place in mid-July (18 – 19) as the sixth of 11 rounds. The rallycross layout sits alongside the Hermann Tilke-designed circuit that will also host DTM for the ...Keep reading View the full article

Citroen Racing has told Motorsport.com it won't run the cars itself - the Versailles team's only rally commitment moving forward is with its customer programme C3 R5-class car - but there's nothing to stop the World Rally Cars being used by private teams. Citroen team principal Pierre Budar said: "[To see the cars compete next year] the most likely option is for the cars to be sold or run by a ...Keep reading View the full article

Latvala lost his full-season seat in the factory team for next season when Toyota announced Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera for 2020. But Latvala will join with a car running at the same specification in at least Sweden and Finland. The move comes after Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda encouraged Latvala to "stay in touch" following Wednesday's line-up ...Keep reading View the full article

The organisers of the Concepcion-based event met with government officials on Thursday and agreed, in the face of the continued rioting and with a state of emergency still in effect, the 2020 event had to be cancelled. Sergio Giacaman, mayor of the Biobio region through which the event runs, said: “We consider it prudent to postpone this date – it needs an adequate climate to perform ...Keep reading View the full article

A call on whether the event will go ahead will be decided in the coming days, with the development following protests and riots that began across Chile last month. The situation, which has claimed 26 lives began when a price rise on the capital city Santiago’s Metro transport system was announced. Peaceful protests escalated into violent scenes, which also resulted in 17 Metro stations ...Keep reading View the full article

The manufacturer's announcement that Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera will form its 2020 line-up leaves Latvala - who has driven for Toyota since it rejoined the WRC in 2017 - and Kris Meeke without drives. Toyoda recalled a chance meeting with the then Volkswagen driver at Rally Finland, and how Latvala’s enthusiasm and stories of driving Corollas and Celicas helped the ...Keep reading View the full article

Ogier's move was telegraphed after he walked out of a Citroen deal a year early last week, which Citroen blamed for its subsequent exit from the WRC. Evans visited Toyota's factory last month and was understood to have agreed terms with team principal Tommi Makinen soon after, while Motorsport.com revealed Rovanpera would be driving a factory Yaris back in June. Six-time champion Ogier, who ...Keep reading View the full article

The Finn, who was teammate to Sebastien Ogier in the Versailles-based squad, says he intends to fight for one of the remaining M-Sport seats left next season. "I read the rumours, but I was expecting it to be more related to Seb, to be honest," Lappi told Motorsport.com. "I tried to get some info from [team boss] Pierre [Budar] earlier, but he didn't really give me anything. I thought ...Keep reading View the full article

Part of World RX since 2016, the Latvian round had been in doubt due to uncertainty over government funding for the event. Having requested more time from World RX promotor IMG to secure enough support, the RA Events-run event will take up its now-traditional slot on the calendar as the ninth round, on September 19 – 20 next year. The event name will switch from being the World RX of ...Keep reading View the full article

Citroen's cited Ogier's departure for Toyota, which is set to be announced on Monday, as the reason for its withdrawal from the WRC in an announcement made on Wednesday. The six-time champion was surprised at the wording of Citroen's communication, saying he was concerned about the message Citroen had sent to other competitors in the WRC. Ogier told Motorsport.com: "Maybe communication ...Keep reading View the full article