Rally

The Frenchman, on the second event of his planned three-rally WRC return, retired from the opening day after sliding off the road close to the start of the second stage.Loeb said: “I was too fast into the corner. I got some understeer, I couldn’t slow down the car enough to turn. I tried to avoid a tree in front but then got stuck on the side of a ditch.“We tried to push the car with ... Keep reading View the full article

Ogier led Loeb in the opening, partially wet 49.03km La Porta - Valle di Rostino stage, the duo separated by 9.7s with third-fastest Ott Tanak a further eight seconds behind.While the reigning champion was only quickest by two seconds in the subsequent 13.55km SS2, Loeb went off-road and Ogier's lead was up to 21.1s.Kris Meeke, who topped the pre-event shakedown, is Ogier's closest ... Keep reading View the full article

GCK revealed the car in its final 2018 livery in Paris on Wednesday, while at the same time Prodrive lifted the lid on the new car’s specification.Much secrecy has surrounded the new Banbury-built Supercar since the project was first announced 14 months ago. It ran in public for the first time in the second official pre-season World RX test at Silverstone last week, but technical ... Keep reading View the full article

Five years on from his retirement from the series, Citroen driver Loeb returned to the WRC in Mexico last month – and stunned onlookers by leading the event until he was ruled out of victory contention by a puncture.Prior to Corsica’s departure from the WRC calendar in 2008, Loeb won the island event for four years in succession, famously ending the 2005 with fastest time on every one ... Keep reading View the full article

The start line for the rallycross layout will be located on the exit of the F1 layout’s turn 12, heading towards turn 13 before turning right onto the first loose-surface section, then re-joining the main circuit between turns 14 and 15.The rallycross circuit then switches back onto the infield with a sharp left onto gravel, into a straight which includes the circuit’s jump, before a ... Keep reading View the full article

Crews delayed checking into the final stage of the Rally Sweden and Rally Mexico in an effort to start further down the order, benefitting from improved grip after cars ahead swept loose snow and gravel from the line.Cars running out of order meant there were larger-than-expected gaps on the Power Stage, which was a concern for the FIA and WRC promoter in terms of safety and delivery ... Keep reading View the full article

Evans suffered a high-speed roll at Rally Mexico that left regular co-driver Dan Barritt with mild concussion.M-Sport had initially expected Barritt to be fit for Corsica but confirmed on Saturday that he will sit out the upcoming event in order to aid his recovery.Mills has been part of Evans’ gravel crew for the past five years, having called time on a lengthy career that included ... Keep reading View the full article

The nine-time WRC champion made his first start in the series for three years in Mexico, and led the event - his first on gravel for five years - until a puncture halted his charge and dropped him to fifth.Loeb completed a two-day test in Citroen's C3 WRC in Corsica last week and said that acclimatising to the asphalt-specification car had been simpler than his preparations for ... Keep reading View the full article

Despite using the same model of Peugeot that team owner Loeb races for the works Peugeot squad in World RX, SLR has developed its own 208 from the ground up.Following six months of development and just one month of final built time, the 208 ran reliably at the Silverstone test, allowing the squad’s former WTCC driver Gregoire Demoustier to rack up the most laps of any driver across ... Keep reading View the full article

The team held the test around 50km south of Bastia, the base of Tour de Corse, which will be held on 5-8 April.Neuville approached a bridge, located near the Linguizzetta commune, exiting out of a left corner but slid off the road and dropped more than five metres before eventually coming to a halt in a small river.While the car suffered significant damage to its front end, including ... Keep reading View the full article

Sebastien Ogier’s Rally Mexico-winning Ford Fiesta WRC was flown to Ford Performance in Charlotte directly after the Leon-based event – and M-Sport’s head of rally engineering Chris Williams admitted his team learned from taking the trip.“We wanted to get the car out there,” said Williams, “but in a week when the [test] car was already in Corsica, it was really busy. We weren’t ... Keep reading View the full article

Running its 2018-spec S1 Supercar in public for the second time, having revealed the car at the Loheac World RX test earlier this month in France, Ekstrom was joined at Silverstone by new teammate, Andreas Bakkerud.With the test split into four sessions over Monday and Tuesday, only once did the EKS squad not top the order.Newcomers GCK set the pace on Monday morning with the brand ... Keep reading View the full article

Ma will become the first Chinese driver to race in the series at the Barcelona event, having tested the Austrian squad's Ford Fiesta Supercar in Austria and France in the close-season.The NIO Formula E Team reserve driver will compete alongside STARD's permanent World RX entrant, Janis Baumanis."The Supercar is definitely a monster. The acceleration is amazing but more than that, I ... Keep reading View the full article

The GCK-Prodrive tie-up to create a World RX version of Megane RS was announced in early 2017. Following build completion at Prodrive’s Banbury base in the UK, the new car has undertaken recent test sessions behind closed doors, including at Pembrey in South Wales. The new squad will officially reveal its car at a launch in Paris next week, but is running the new two-litre ... Keep reading View the full article

The final stage of the last two rounds of the series have been hit by crews taking a time penalty in an effort to find a favourable and faster place on the road in search of the maximum five bonus points.Motorsport.com understands the WRC Commission’s electronic vote on a potential rule change concluded on Thursday, with the alteration expected to be ratified by the FIA World Motor ... Keep reading View the full article

Pagenaud, the 2016 IndyCar champion, has form for racing in other categories having competed in sportscars around his IndyCar commitments. The Frenchman won the 2010 American Le Mans Series and competed at Le Mans four times, as well as racing in select outings in Australia’s V8 Supercars. “I’d probably do the Monte Carlo in rally,” he said. “Rally is my passion. It’s something that ... Keep reading View the full article

Although already confirmed by the FIA's list of permeant drivers, the launch in Wolfsburg also officially announced World RX drivers' champion Johan Kristoffersson as remaining with the PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team, alongside Solberg for a second year.Volkswagen Motorsport's Hannover-built Polo, which has been rebranded as an R instead of GTI for 2018, was run in public test sessions ... Keep reading View the full article

In an effort to contain the rising speeds the latest generation of World Rally Cars are capable of, organisers of the Jyvaskyla-based rally have moved to using smaller, narrower roads that precludes the wide, fast stretch included in the stage.This year's itinerary is 60% new compared to 2017, and includes the Moksi and Urria stages.The Moksi test is a longer version of the stage ... Keep reading View the full article

The 7mate channel, which also broadcasts the Bathurst 12 Hour, has picked up the rights for the WRC for the remainder of the season, with plans for a one-hour highlights show from each round.That will then turn into live coverage for the season-ending Rally Australia event, with at least 4.5 hours of live coverage from three televised stages expected.“Rally Australia is excited to ... Keep reading View the full article

In a breakaway from the American-based GRC, manufacturers Volkswagen of America and Subaru of America have already signed up for the series.Volkswagen is expected to field Supercars for former GRC champions Scott Speed and Tanner Foust run by Andretti Autosport, while the Vermont Sports Car-operated Subaru programme will run former World Rally drivers Patrick Sandell and Chris ... Keep reading View the full article