Rally

Hyundai's points leader Neuville suffered a suspension breakage while first on the road during the morning's opening stage and despite his best efforts to fix the problem, he had to retire from the day. That handed Ogier - who started the day just 0.3 seconds in arrears of his title rival - a huge 25-second lead. But on the very next stage, Ogier's M-Sport Ford suffered damage to his ... ... Keep reading View the full article

A surge in pace from the championship's top two coupled with chaos elsewhere in the field, particularly for Citroen, turned the order inside out during the second loop. Ogier leapt from seventh to second behind Andreas Mikkelsen with a blistering win on the Cetibeli stage that began the afternoon, which was also where Citroen's rally fell apart. Craig Breen had led for part of the morning ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Citroen driver Breen had burst to the front on Friday's long first stage Cetibeli, on which most drivers complained that the three-minute gaps between cars were inadequate with dust hanging in the air and hampering visibility. Breen opened up a 4.8-second lead over Thursday night superspecial winner Mikkelsen's Hyundai, but his pace faded as he played it cautiously on the extremely rough ... ... Keep reading View the full article

As the only driver to take a set of medium compound tyres, one grade softer than the rest of the field on hards, Mikkelsen used his grip advantage to go 2.5s faster than Citroen’s Craig Breen in second. Ogier half-spun into plastic barriers lining the stage when the rear of his Ford Fiesta kicked up over a jump, leaving him unable to slow down in time for the following corner. His mistake ... ... Keep reading View the full article

The 30-year-old Belgian's deal is the first of numerous announcements that will shape the WRC driver market in the coming weeks. Neuville gave Hyundai its maiden WRC win in Germany in 2014, in his first season at the squad, and has been Sebastien Ogier's main title rival in recent years. Hyundai made clear retaining Neuville was its priority, and told Motorsport.com a month ago a deal was ... ... Keep reading View the full article

VW will run two of its new WRC2 cars on Rally Spain at the end of October, and has announced former M-Sport WRC driver Eric Camilli as the driver of the first. Solberg has close ties with Volkswagen Motorsport through his PSRX outfit running VW's Polo R Supercars in the World Rallycross Championship. He drove the Polo GTI R5 at the start of the year, completing close to 200 miles of running ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Two-time World RX champion Solberg was diagnosed with lung disease Sarkoidose 12 months ago and the PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team owner has admitted that his squad started to consider finding a replacement driver during pre-season testing. The Norwegian's condition was discovered when he was hospitalised by a first-corner crash in the semi-finals at the Latvian round of the series last year ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Discussions with Ogier about a potential return to Citroen have been ongoing for weeks, but talks with Toyota driver Lappi are understood to be escalating. While five-time WRC champion Ogier - currently at M-Sport Ford - remains Citroen's primary target, failure to land him would place an even greater emphasis on signing Lappi. The Finn's manager first met with Citroen team principal Pierre ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Gronholm is expected to discuss a one-off drive for next February's Rally Sweden with fellow Finn and Toyota team principal Tommi Makinen in the coming weeks. An agreement was nearly reached for Sweden this season, and there is now interest in making sure Gronholm's first WRC appearance since 2010 happens next year. "Because I was 50 in this year, it would have been a nice thing to do," ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Homologation regulations stipulate the team must take a backwards step with the engines in the Yaris WRCs of Ott Tanak, Jari-Matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi for the first WRC event to be held in Turkey since 2010. Team principal Tommi Makinen explained to Motorsport.com: “When you fit the new homologation joker, for us that’s the engine, to the chassis then you cannot take the new engine ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Kristofferson battled back from making a poor start in Q2 on Saturday afternoon to claim top spot in the intermediate classification, but was beaten to semi-final victory by a fast-starting Mattias Ekstrom. Starting from the second row of the grid for the final, Kristoffersson ran third on the opening lap, but dropped to fifth when he took his compulsory joker on the second tour. He ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Having begun with fastest time in Q1, Kristoffersson started on pole position for the last race in Q2, but took a risk with the launch RPM settings in his PSRX Volkswagen Polo and made the slowest start of the grid. Meanwhile, Audi driver Andreas Bakkerud just avoided jumping the start as the lights went green and led the pack into Loheac’s turn one, but Kristoffersson had already fought ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Following the announcement on Wednesday that Audi will focus on Formula E and DTM next year, Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass has told Motorsport.com that the German marque is drawing an end to its support for Mattias Ekstrom’s EKS team’s rallycross World RX programme. Audi gave blessing to Ekstrom’s EKS squad when the Swede’s team first entered World RX in 2014 with its Audi S1 ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Sainz made clear it after winning his second Dakar last January that if he received an attractive offer that would allow him to continue fighting to win the legendary event, he would consider returning. Following Peugeot's withdrawal from cross-country rallying, the two-time World Rally champion has tested both the Toyota Hilux 4x4 and the X-Raid buggy. After negotiations with both ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Audi DTM driver Nico Muller will race at the Riga event in World RX driving a 2018-specification Audi S1 for the manufacturer-backed squad, alongside Andreas Bakkerud and Ekstrom. Muller made two starts with the team in World RX last season, at the French and Latvian rounds. EKS will also run a 2017-based car in the French round this weekend and in Latvia for two-time European Rallycross ... ... Keep reading View the full article

In the first year for the squad racing Prodrive-built and run Renault Megane RS RX Supercars, Grosset-Janin had partnered team owner and driver Guerlain Chichierit and netted the outfit’s first podium at Holjes in Sweden. “Despite putting in endless hard work over the past years to prepare myself to be at the level of a professional World Rallycross driver, I inform you ... ... Keep reading View the full article

The five-time champion is in the middle of negotiations for next season and wants conclude those talks before the end of next month. He expects that deal will be his last in the series he's dominated half a decade. "It's clear that I'm coming towards the end of my career," said Ogier, "and if there's another contract, it'll be the last one. "I'm lucky to have had good years with some good ... ... Keep reading View the full article

Rally Japan organisers held a press conference overnight to provide further details about the country's first WRC rally since 2010. The event will be based on the main island of Honshu, with three possible dates for next season - September 12-15, or the first or second week in November. A final decision will be made at the World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris on October 12. Managing ... ... Keep reading View the full article

It had looked like Germany would be a huge blow to Ogier's title defence when he fell to ninth with a Saturday incident, but his recovery to fourth plus Power Stage victory salvaged a 17-point score. While Neuville finished second, he played it safe on the Power Stage and only took one bonus point - which meant Ogier's TV stage win negated most of what Neuville had gained for the overall result ... ... Keep reading View the full article

It had looked like Germany would be a huge blow to Ogier's title defence when he fell to ninth with a Saturday incident, but his recovery to fourth plus Power Stage victory salvaged a 17-point score. While Neuville finished second, he played it safe on the Power Stage and only took one bonus point - which meant Ogier's TV stage win negated most of what Neuville had gained for the overall result ... ... Keep reading View the full article