Rally

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has inherited the Acropolis Rally lead after team-mate Dani Sordo became the latest World Rally Championship Rally1 driver to hit trouble.Sordo had moved into the lead of the rally on the opening stage of the day when team-mate and overnight leader Ott Tanak suffered two punctures in separate incidents.He started the afternoon’s stages with a 10.3s advantage over ...Keep readingView the full article

A decision surrounding Hyundai’s future in the World Rally Championship beyond 2025 is yet to be made, insists team principal Cyril Abiteboul.Confirmation that lead driver Thierry Neuville has signed a new one-year contract for 2025 has fuelled speculation that the Korean brand is potentially heading for an exit from its works WRC programme in 2026.Hyundai is understood to be gearing up for a ...Keep readingView the full article

Hyundai’s Dani Sordo increased his lead over his World Rally Championship team-mate Thierry Neuville to close out a dramatic Saturday morning at the Acropolis Rally.Sordo, competing in a part-time campaign, inherited the rally lead when his Hyundai team-mate Ott Tanak lost time following two tyre failures on stage seven.The Spaniard drove smartly through the two tricky gravel stages to open up a ...Keep readingView the full article

Hyundai’s Dani Sordo moved into the lead of the Acropolis Rally after World Rally Championship title contender Ott Tanak suffered a double puncture in stage seven.Tanak started Saturday with a 21.8s margin over Sordo before drama struck twice in the day’s opening stage, Rengini, 28.67km.The 2019 world champion suffered a right rear puncture five kilometres into the stage which resulted in the ...Keep readingView the full article

Sebastian Ogier says World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville should “stop crying” and “learn driving first on the road” following an eventful opening day at the Acropolis Rally.Ogier’s comments aimed at the Hyundai driver arrived after the eight-time world champion won three of the day’s six stages, starting second on the road, behind Neuville, having now emerged as the ...Keep readingView the full article

A power issue for Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier handed Hyundai’s Ott Tanak the Acropolis Rally advantage as drama struck four of the five World Rally Championship title contenders.Tanak was the only championship challenger to avoid problems to end an attritional Friday on Greece’s rough gravel roads with a 21.8s lead over team-mate Dani Sordo. Ogier had led the rally by 5.9s at the midday ...Keep readingView the full article

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak has regained the Acropolis Rally lead while Adrien Fourmaux’s pursuit of a maiden World Rally Championship victory has come to a halt.Tanak moved into a five-second rally lead when he took advantage of a mysterious issue for rally leader Sebastien Ogier’s Toyota GR Yaris on stage five.Ogier had been running strongly before dropping time in the final split of the 21.67km ...Keep readingView the full article

Sebastien Ogier moved into the lead of the Acropolis Rally after an eventful opening loop where power issues struck his World Rally Championship title rivals Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans.A blistering effort on the final stage of a particularly arduous gravel loop helped Toyota driver Ogier regain the rally lead he held after winning the opening stage, to head to service with a 5.9s ...Keep readingView the full article

Often referred to as the ‘European Safari’ given the incredibly tough conditions, this weekend’s World Rally Championship Acropolis Rally is likely to be even tougher than its African counterpart.WRC drivers are set to face possibly the roughest Acropolis Rally in recent memory thanks to series of contributing factors that has resulted in much rougher stage conditions.The Greek round of the ...Keep readingView the full article

The ambitions of any Formula 1 engineering project are always geared towards moving the team involved further up the grid. The Komatsu-Williams Engineering Academy is no different and has similar long-term aspirations – but a whole lot more besides. The programme was launched on Thursday, with the aim of attracting new and previously untapped talent. A launch event was staged on the ...Keep readingView the full article

Sebastien Ogier has confirmed plans to contest the remaining rounds of the World Rally Championship to help Toyota challenge for both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ crowns.The eight-time world champion was set to contest a half-season campaign in his role as part-time driver, but his impressive run of three wins and three second-place finishes have proved crucial for Toyota’s ...Keep readingView the full article

Thierry Neuville says his World Rally Championship future beyond 2025 will likely be determined by Hyundai’s WRC plans as he doesn’t see himself “going on with another brand”.The WRC points leader has signed a new one-year extension that will take him into a 12th season with the Korean marque.However, the Belgian’s WRC future beyond 2025 is unclear with Hyundai yet to confirm its ...Keep readingView the full article

Thierry Neuville has signed a one-year contract extension to remain with Hyundai, alongside Ott Tanak, to contest the 2025 World Rally Championship.The current WRC points leader had entered into the final year of his current deal with the Korean marque this season, before reaching a new agreement that will take the five-time title runner-up into a 12th year with the team in WRC.Neuville will once ...Keep readingView the full article

International rallying returned to Britain for the first time since 2019 last weekend as Rali Ceredigion made a resoundingly successful debut as part of the European Rally Championship. The event certainly filled British rally fans with hope and, just maybe, could be a catalyst for a Rally GB revival.Last weekend marked yet another impressive step for the Welsh asphalt rally that has achieved ERC ...Keep readingView the full article

World champions Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera will feature for Toyota to help the Japanese marque’s World Rally Championship title bid at Rally Chile.Toyota will therefore field four GR Yaris Rally1 cars for the final gravel round of the season held in the South American nation from 26-29 September.Ogier and Rovanpera have both been contesting partial campaigns this season although it ...Keep readingView the full article

The World Rally Championship would like to add another asphalt round to its calendar in 2026 to further even out the split between tarmac and gravel rallies.Now the championship has published an expanded 14-round calendar for next season, the WRC is already looking to 2026 as demand to join the schedule continues to increase.Several nations have expressed a desire to feature on the 2026 bill. It ...Keep readingView the full article

Martins Sesks will rejoin the World Rally Championship’s top tier after securing a deal to contest Rally Chile next month. The 24-year-old Latvian made his Rally1 debut earlier this year courtesy of a two-round programme funded by the WRC Promoter and his personal sponsors to compete in Poland (June) and Latvia (July).Sesks and co-driver Renars Francis turned heads in those two gravel rallies ...Keep readingView the full article

The World Rally Championship has selected 15 aspiring female drivers that will compete to win a fully funded drive in the Junior WRC next year.The WRC launched its women’s driver development programme in the hope of unearthing new talent and increasing female participation in the discipline.In recent years women have enjoyed success in co-driving with Reeta Hamalainen and Enni Malkonen winning ...Keep readingView the full article

The commercial rights holder of the World Rally Championship is investigating a potential sale of the business, according to a media report.WRC Promoter GmbH acquired the commercial rights to the World Rally Championship in 2013. Previously, the promotion was handled by North One Sports, but the ten-year (in force since 2010) contract with the FIA was cancelled before the 2012 season when North ...Keep readingView the full article

A new World Rally Championship docuseries will launch later this month, offering fans a rare behind-the-scenes look at M-Sport Ford’s 2024 campaign.The series titled ‘More than Machine’, produced in partnership with team sponsor SafetyCulture by Superlative Films, is a six-part documentary that follows the daily lives of M-Sport’s drivers Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster, engineers ...Keep readingView the full article