Rally

Autosport is 75 years old in 2025 and a new-look Autosport Awards will kick off the celebrations. The Awards has moved from its traditional December slot at Grosvenor House Hotel to the Roundhouse in January. But some of the history, including a selection of the key Awards, remains – and the stars often attend the event to receive their Awards in front of motorsport luminaries. The ...Keep readingView the full article

Thierry Neuville says the hunger for a second World Rally Championship title is stronger than ever heading into the Monte Carlo season opener as the defending champion for the first time. Neuville will begin his title defence this week in Monte Carlo after finally achieving his ultimate dream last season, as he cast aside the tagline of being the championship’s perennial runner-up. The ...Keep readingView the full article

Defender has announced the model with which it will compete in the upcoming 2026 Dakar Rally in the Stock category. The British manufacturer announced at the start of this month that it will enter the Dakar next year, although it remained to be known with which model it would do so. On Monday, Defender revealed its OCTA model as the vehicle with which it will lay the foundations of its ...Keep readingView the full article

New World Rally Championship tyre supplier Hankook is “100% confident” in its product ahead of its competition debut in Monte Carlo despite drivers feeling its winter tyres require more development. The Korean firm has taken over as the WRC’s control tyre supplier this year following the end of Pirelli’s four-year stint, which concluded at the end of last season. Since winning the ...Keep readingView the full article

M-Sport has taken the covers off its newly liveried Ford Puma that will contest the 2025 World Rally Championship, ahead of next week’s Monte Carlo opener. The British squad has revealed a new navy blue colour scheme featuring a continuation of its association with energy drinks giant Red Bull and technology company SafetyCulture. M-Sport will once again filed two full-time entries. It has ...Keep readingView the full article

New technical regulations and a change of tyre manufacturer has made preparations for the challenging Monte Carlo Rally among the most demanding for World Rally Championship teams in recent times. Not since the introduction of the Rally1 cars in 2022 has the WRC undergone such significant changes, heaping even more importance on teams to do the best job possible with their Monte pre-event ...Keep readingView the full article

The World Rally Championship will expand to 12 Rally1 cars for the second round of the season in Sweden next month. The release of the entry list for the 13-16 February event marks the largest Rally1 field since Rally Catalunya in 2022, where 12 top-flight cars were also entered. Privateers Lorenzo Bertelli and Jourdan Serderidis will bolster the Rally Sweden entry, with the former driving a ...Keep readingView the full article

Being among the World Rally Championship’s top flight, traversing the start ramp in Monte Carlo’s glitzy Casino Square in front of thousands of fans, is the stuff of dreams for any rally driver. Next week the WRC’s latest top class debutant Josh McErlean will turn that into a reality after a whirlwind off-season that has resulted in the Irishman landing a dream full-time Rally1 opportunity ...Keep readingView the full article

The Dakar Rally has been held in several countries since its inaugural edition in 1979, but no driver had managed to lift the Touareg trophy on home soil until Yazeed Al-Rajhi this year. The Saudi driver won an atypical 2025 event in which a number of favourites fell by the wayside early on, with Carlos Sainz Sr and Sebastien Loeb being the most high-profile departures. Emerging winner in ...Keep readingView the full article

The Brand Partnership of the Year is an award that recognises a brand that has made highly effective use of a motorsport platform to convey its brand message and to add value to the team, driver or series it has partnered with. The winning sponsor’s activation will have shown high levels of creativity, scope and execution and will be announced at the Autosport Awards in London on January ...Keep readingView the full article

Yazeed Al-Rajhi outgunned factory Toyota rival Henk Lategan in a customer Hilux to claim an against-the-odds victory in the Dakar Rally. With newcomers Ford and Dacia still finding their feet in cross-country rallying and last year’s winner Audi having pulled out of the competition, the 47th edition of Dakar was effectively an all-Toyota affair. But while the Japanese manufacturer fielded ...Keep readingView the full article

Daniel Sanders put in a dominant performance on his factory KTM to claim a maiden victory in the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. In one of the most one-sided bikes contests in recent history, Sanders led the bikes category from start-to-finish in the two-week marathon, outgunning Honda rival Tosha Schareina by a comfortable margin of 8m50s . It marked the 20th victory for KTM in the world’s ...Keep readingView the full article

New Hyundai signing Adrien Fourmaux says he already feels “quite comfortable” within his new World Rally Championship surroundings heading into next week’s Monte Carlo season opener. Fourmaux emerged as the key player in the driver market after deciding to move from M-Sport-Ford to Hyundai, where he will pilot the Korean marque’s third i20 N Rally1 entry on a full-time basis. The ...Keep readingView the full article

Ford driver Mattias Ekstrom was fastest in the penultimate stage of the Dakar Rally on Thursday, while Overdrive’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi took a decisive lead over factory Toyota rival Henk Lategan. In what was the last major test of the 2025 Dakar, competitors had to traverse 275km of dunes through the famous Empty Quarters in Saudi Arabia before halting for the night at Shubayth. Lategan ...Keep readingView the full article

Toyota expects Kalle Rovanpera's return to a full-time World Rally Championship drive will make team-mate Elfyn Evans “much stronger” this year. The Japanese squad is gearing up to begin a tilt at both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles next week in Monte Carlo, with an expanded line-up that features four full-time drivers and a partial campaign for eight-time world champion ...Keep readingView the full article

Nasser Al-Attiyah has revealed he is left with a “lot of stress” after a navigation error on Stage 10 dented his hopes of scoring a sixth career victory in the Dakar Rally. The Dacia star opened the road on Wednesday’s first visit to the gruelling Empty Quarters of Saudi Arabia, but a mistake by co-driver Edouard Boulanger meant they lost their way just 9km into the stage. They ...Keep readingView the full article

Indonesia has formally declared its interest in hosting a round of the World Rally Championship in the near future. The WRC Promoter met with the Indonesian Minister for Sport and Youth, Dito Ariotedjo, in the nation’s capital city Jakarta this week to discuss the possibility of Indonesia making a return to the WRC. A Heads of Agreement for Indonesia to join the WRC in the future was ...Keep readingView the full article

Nani Roma scored Ford’s first stage victory of the 2025 Dakar Rally on Wednesday, while Toyota driver Henk Lategan recaptured the lead in the overall standings. Stage 10 marked the first visit to the unforgiving Empty Quarters desert in Saudi Arabia, as competitors tackled 120km of dunes and sand between Haradh and Shubaytah. The tricky route shook up the order in the Ultimate category and ...Keep readingView the full article

Nasser Al-Attiyah bounced back from a difficult showing on Monday to claim victory on Stage 9 of the Dakar Rally, while a puncture for Toyota driver Henk Lategan promoted Yazeed Al-Rajhi to the overall lead. Dacia's Al-Attiyah and Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom initially duelled for victory in the 357km test between Riyadh and Haradh, with the two trading the lead in the first part of the ...Keep readingView the full article

Dermot O’Leary to host the ‘Biggest Night in Motorsport’ – the Autosport Awards O’Leary – known for "This Morning" and his BBC Radio 2 show on Saturdays – will host alongside F1 and sports presenter Lee McKenzie Spice Girl Melanie C to DJ the exclusive afterparty Bernie Ecclestone to receive a unique 75th Anniversary Trophy The Autosport Awards, the ‘Biggest ...Keep readingView the full article