Rally

Alonso has been testing the Hilux in Namibia since Tuesday, following Toyota’s announcement that the Spaniard would embark on a rally-raid initiation programme with the view of making his debut in motorsport’s most prestigious cross-country marathon. The 38-year-old ex-F1 star had already trialled the Hilux in the Kalahari Desert back in March, but has been given much more complicated ...Keep reading View the full article

Alonso sampled Toyota's Hilux car in the Kalahari Desert back in March, and will now embark on a much more extensive rally raid training programme with the Gazoo South Africa operation that represents Toyota at the Dakar. This will be with the aim of having Alonso debut in the legendary rally-raid in 2020, although it's understood the Spaniard retains the option of backing out in case he does ...Keep reading View the full article

The 2017 WRC2 champion contested the opening two rounds of the 2019 season in a third M-Sport-run Ford Fiesta WRC, finishing eighth on home soil in Sweden. Now he is set for a first gravel outing of the year in Turkey, an event he contested last year in a works Skoda Fabia R5. "I'm so excited to be back in the FIA World Rally Championship, and back with the M-Sport team – I've been waiting ...Keep reading View the full article

The two-time Formula 1 champion, who has not raced since winning the Le Mans 24 Hours and the FIA World Endurance Championship title with Toyota in June, addressed his future plans answering questions submitted by followers of his Instagram account on Thursday evening. Alonso’s only appearances outside the WEC this year have been in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and a failed bid to make the ...Keep reading View the full article

The New Zealander's planned return was wrecked when he hit a rock during a pre-event test, destroying the Ford Fiesta WRC in which he was due to make his first top-level start since last year's Rally Australia. The ex-Hyundai WRC driver then flew home from Finland before the rally had begun to line up meetings with investors, as he continues to try to get back into the Fiesta. "Even though ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak left M-Sport to drive for Toyota in 2018, and narrowly missed out on the WRC title last season after a late run of victories failed to undo his troublesome start to the campaign. M-Sport and Hyundai have both expressed interest in signing the Estonian for 2020, but Motorsport.com understands that the WRC points leader will stick with the team also leading the manufacturers ...Keep reading View the full article

While Motorsport.com understands the M-Sport Ford driver is nearing full fitness, there's concern about the nature of the roads aggravating the injury again. The British team is now assessing its options for who to put in Evans' Ford Fiesta WRC. M-Sport team principal Richard Millener told Motorsport.com: "Frustrating as it is for us to have a driver of Elfyn's calibre on the bench, we have ...Keep reading View the full article

Sordo admitted after his shock Rally Italy victory in June that he didn't know when his next event in an i20 Coupe WRC would be - although he expressed an interest in competing in Germany, the scene of his only other top-level WRC win. Now it has been confirmed the Spaniard will join Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen for the Saarland-based event on August 22-25. It means Loeb, a ...Keep reading View the full article

Bakkerud started on pole position for the final in Canada, thanks to a lights-to-flag victory in semi-final two, before the Norwegian then repeated the performance in the main event to score his first win since the Argentine round in 2016. Bakkerud capitalised when the event’s dominant force, Niclas Gronholm, made a poor start from pole in semi-final one and didn’t make the final. That ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak began the final day of the rally with 16.4 seconds in hand over Citroen driver Lappi, and extended the gap to 21.1s ahead of the closing Power Stage. The Estonian topped the 11.12-km test, 0.6s faster than Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville, to score the maximum 30 points and win the rally by 25.6s over Lappi. Despite only setting the seventh-fastest time on the Power Stage, Lappi was ...Keep reading View the full article

The Hyundai i20 driver took an early joker lap in his Q1 race from second in a bid to overhaul leader Anton Marklund, but after dropping valuable time in traffic, Marklund was able to beat Gronholm at the joker merge on the final tour. Gronholm wound up sixth. Having then been beaten into the lead of his race in Q2 by Marklund’s GCK teammate Guerlain Chicherit, Gronholm again ducked into the ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak took just one stage win but extended his lead over Citroen’s Esapekka Lappi to move to within touching distance of a second consecutive victory in Finland. Lappi is now a comfortable second behind Tanak following two stage wins, on the second passes of Pihlajakoski and Kakaristo (SS16 and SS18). The Finn, in his best showing of the year so far, gapped Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala by ...Keep reading View the full article

Meeke retired from Saturday’s stages with damage to the left-rear of his Yaris WRC, while Latvala emerged from the same Kakaristo test with a left-rear puncture. The Finn’s car suffered bodywork and aerodynamic damage, but he was still able to go fastest on the following Leustu stage. He now sits second, 13.8s behind championship-leading teammate Ott Tanak. Makinen told ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak and Latvala each took turns at the top of the standings, with Tanak using his better road position to take 3.1s out of Latvala on Pihkajakoski (SS12), the opening stage of the day. Latvala then responded with the fastest time on the following Paijala test (SS13) to edge back in front by just 0.2s. But misfortune struck both Latvala and teammate Meeke on Kakaristo ...Keep readingView the full article

Meeke was fourth overnight but overhauled the Citroen of Esapekka Lappi to run third, just 2.2s off the lead after the morning’s first stage (Pihlajakoski). He had been matching the split times of rally leader and Toyota teammate Ott Tanak, when he clipped an errant rock on a fifth-gear right-hand corner some five miles into the penultimate stage of the loop on Kakaristo. His Toyota ...Keep reading View the full article

Latvala overturned his teammate Ott Tanak’s 5.4s morning advantage with the fastest time on the second pass of Moksi to open up a slender 0.4s lead after the 12.45-mile-long test. A further two stage wins, on SS9 (Asamaki) and SS10 (Aanekoski) enabled the three-time event winner to build a two-second lead over Kris Meeke, which was marginally reduced after the Harju street stage. Meeke ...Keep reading View the full article

Despite running first on the road, Tanak grabbed the lead after the first stage of the day on Oitilla and extended his advantage over the remaining tests before service. Toyota dominated the morning running, with Latvala claiming a trio of stage wins to remain Tanak’s closest challenger despite suffering a rear left puncture towards the end of SS5 (Assamaki). SS3 winner Kris Meeke also ...Keep reading View the full article

Tanak, who won last year’s event, topped the morning shakedown from Neuville and had been marginally up on the opening split, but fell back towards the end of the short 1.4-mile stage based in the centre of Jyvaskyla. Toyota teammate and 2016 winner Kris Meeke was third quickest in his Yaris WRC, albeit 1.2s adrift of Neuville. Sebastien Ogier, who this week announced his intention to ...Keep reading View the full article

The six-time world champion always said his current Citroen contract would be his last in the WRC and re-confirmed that decision on Wednesday. Ogier told Motorsport.com he was looking forward to the next stage in his career beyond the WRC, involving the all-new Extreme E series in 2021. “I have said that many times,” the Frenchman said. “People keep asking me, maybe they don’t believe ...Keep reading View the full article

The former Citroen driver has been called up by Hyundai for this week's Rally Finland, which will be his first WRC start since the end of 2018. Read Also: Hyundai drafts in Breen for Rally Finland Sources in the team have admitted Breen's deal could be extended if he performs well. Hyundai is fielding Thierry Neuville on every round this year but has rotated the rest of ...Keep reading View the full article