Rally

Guerlain Chicherit took a surprise victory for X-raid Mini in the opening stage of the 2025 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia after a long battle with Toyota rivals. Frenchman Chicherit was quick from the get-go in Saturday’s 499km test around Bisha, establishing an early advantage of over a minute in his Mini JCW Rally 3.0i. Chicherit was chased hard by a slew of drivers from Toyota’s factory ...Keep readingView the full article

The Defender brand has announced plans to enter the Dakar Rally in 2026 as part of a three-year programme. The British manufacturer, a subsidiary of Land Rover, will field two examples of the popular Defender in all rounds of the World-Rally Raid Championship next year, with an additional third vehicle added to its line-up for Dakar. Defender will compete in the Stock category that is ...Keep readingView the full article

Seventy crews will tackle the 2025 World Rally Championship season opener in Monte Carlo following the release of the event’s entry list. Monte Carlo will kick off the expanded 14-round WRC season from 23-26 January with 10 entries representing the top Rally1 class for the asphalt curtain raiser. The entry list is headed by new world champion Thierry Neuville, who will pilot one of three ...Keep readingView the full article

Factory Toyota driver Henk Lategan beat Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom to take victory in Prologue at the start of the 2025 Dakar Rally. The 47th edition of the world's biggest cross-country rally kicked off with a short 29km special in Bisha in south west region of Saudi Arabia, with a total of 64 cars lining up in the Ultimate category. While all eyes were on Ford and Dacia as they made their ...Keep readingView the full article

Sebastien Loeb says he is 'not obsessed' with winning the Dakar Rally after coming close to clinching the top prize on several occasions. One of the greatest rally drivers of all time with nine titles in the World Rally Championship, Loeb has found it hard to emulate the same success in the cross-country format. The Frenchman finished runner-up in the Dakar on three occasions and set a new ...Keep readingView the full article

Carlos Sainz Sr believes that “tactics will be more important than ever” in this year’s running of the Dakar Rally. After claiming his fourth victory in the iconic rally raid last year with Audi, the Spaniard has switched allegiances to Ford this term as the marque enters its new Raptor developed in collaboration with M-Sport. This year's event held in the Saudi Arabian dunes begins ...Keep readingView the full article

Ford, together with its long-time World Rally Championship partner M-Sport, has designed the new Raptor T1+ to take on the Dakar Rally. With a star-studded line-up including past winners Carlos Sainz Sr and Nani Roma, former Audi star Mattias Ekstrom and promising youngster Mitch Guthrie Jr, the American manufacturer is already seen as a favourite for the 47th edition of the world’s toughest ...Keep readingView the full article

Takamoto Katsuta’s biggest target for 2025 is to be more consistent with his results across a World Rally Championship campaign, which he expects will offer up a “bigger challenge”. The 31-year-old is gearing up for a sixth season with the factory Toyota squad, which will expand to four full-time entries next year. Two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera will return for a full season ...Keep readingView the full article

The 2025 Dakar Rally promises to be one of the most exciting in recent history, with several manufacturers and drivers capable of winning the famous Touareg trophy. The rally-raid will begin on 3 January with the Prologue in Bisha and conclude on 17 January in Shubaytah after 12 stages and more than 5,000 kilometres of running across Saudi Arabia. Here’s a list of drivers considered to be ...Keep readingView the full article

The number #1 will return to the World Rally Championship for the first time since 2022 with new champion Thierry Neuville set to adopt the number for the 2025 campaign. The Hyundai driver in recent years has become synonymous with the #11 - a number which he first utilised in the WRC in 2013, before adopting it on a full-time basis from 2019. However, next season will see the #1 adorn ...Keep readingView the full article

Dacia Sandriders will run an innovative new driver safety device on the team's debut at the Dakar Rally. The manufacturer will use a 'seat attenuator' to absorb impacts over the rough terrain as the car slams up and down on its suspension, helping to reduce the compression of drivers' spines, which have sustained injuries in recent years. Technical partner Prodrive has developed the damper ...Keep readingView the full article

Kalle Rovanpera says he’s learned “many things” in 2024 and is hopeful his new found circuit racing skills can help him on asphalt World Rally Championship events in 2025. The two-time world rally champion will make a full-time return to the WRC in 2025 after a year where he expanded his motorsport horizons by dovetailing a circuit racing programme alongside a partial WRC campaign. In ...Keep readingView the full article

Improving performance on rough gravel rallies is the main focus for Elfyn Evans in 2025 to enhance his chances of lifting a maiden World Rally Championship title. The Toyota driver finished as the WRC title runner-up for a fourth time this season after a campaign that resulted in the Welshman scoring more second-place finishes in rallies than any of his rivals. Evans emerged as a title rival ...Keep readingView the full article

The World Rally Championship could benefit from hosting exhibition-style events such as the Monza Rally Show, according to Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala. All three WRC Rally1 teams attended a revived Monza Rally Show earlier this month, which acted as a celebration of the 2024 season, while also paying tribute to Pirelli’s four-year stint as the championship’s control tyre ...Keep readingView the full article

Kalle Rovanpera will kick off the 2025 season by making his 24 hour endurance racing debut in the Dubai 24 Hours ahead of the World Rally Championship opener in Monte Carlo. The two-time WRC champion will drive a Porsche 911 GT3 R for the Proton Huber Competition squad alongside fellow Finns Jukka Honkavuori and Jani Kakela, 2012 German rally champion Mark Wallenwein and Joel Monegro. The ...Keep readingView the full article

The Dakar Rally returns to provide one of motorsport's toughest tests for human and machine in January, with Saudi Arabia again hosting the challenge. It may not be the event it once was when run through Africa to the Senegalese capital [the event's name gives it away] but the test remains one that requires ultimate performance and robustness to overcome. Relevance remains for manufacturers ...Keep readingView the full article

Dacia Sandriders technical director Philip Dunabin has played down expectations for the team's first run at the Dakar Rally despite securing a 1-2 on its debut at the Rallye du Maroc. The Romanian manufacturer has partnered with Prodrive to contest the World Rally Raid Championship [WR2C], including a tilt at the Dakar beginning in Saudi Arabia on 3 January, with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sebastien ...Keep readingView the full article

The second season of the all-female F1 Academy championship was notable for having closer ties to Formula 1, as cars were decked out in the liveries of grand prix teams, and for the stunning dominance of its champion who curiously was crowned twice. But across the spectrum of motorsport categories, there were numerous noteworthy performances to be found in 2024. Here we chart 10 of the ...Keep readingView the full article

The 2025 MotoGP season will be upon us within a few weeks. And while cost-saving regulations limit bike development for most of the motorcycle manufacturers, fuel suppliers are relishing the chance to chase even more performance in year two of the renewable fuels era. 2024 was a significant year for the fuel companies involved, which include French giant TotalEnergies. In line with the global ...Keep readingView the full article

Hyundai Motorsport has produced a special behind-the-scenes documentary charting Thierry Neuville’s run to a maiden World Rally Championship title. Titled “Never just win”, the film has been produced in-house by Hyundai Motorsport, led by the team’s videographer Sebastian Scott and has today been released on YouTube. The documentary offers rare insights into the 2024 WRC season as ...Keep readingView the full article