Rally

The 2019 world champion kicked off the 21-stage event by winning the opening 3.3km Tartu Vald test but is sitting last in the overall standings after being hit with a five-minute penalty following an enforced engine change after shakedown.Facing an uphill struggle to score championship points, Tanak highlighted what could have been by winning the spectator stage by 0.6s from Toyota’s Elfyn Evans ...Keep readingView the full article

Toyota's championship leader Rovanpera and M-Sport rival Tanak headed into the event as the overwhelming favourites to challenge for the win on Estonia’s fast gravel roads.However, an enforced engine change on Tanak’s Ford Puma due to a significant failure following Thursday’s shakedown has effectively put the Estonian out of the victory hunt on home soil before the rally has begun.WRC ...Keep readingView the full article

Toyota will debut its new engine update at this weekend’s Rally Estonia after the reigning world champions elected to use one of its homologation jokers to make the change.It has been widely considered that Hyundai has held a top-end speed advantage over Toyota since the introduction of the Rally1 regulations last year.The deficit between the teams was at its most prominent in high-speed ...Keep readingView the full article

Lappi suffered three failures related to the i20 N Rally1’s prop shaft that ultimately curtailed a realistic shot at a podium, while shining a spotlight on the team’s reliability concerns.Hyundai is aware that it will need to re-design the component in the future to fully fix the problem, but containment measures are in place for this weekend’s fast gravel round in Estonia.Abiteboul says a ...Keep readingView the full article

Tanak reported an engine issue with his Ford Puma after clocking the fastest time following the first pass of the 4.08km shakedown stage on Thursday morning.The 2019 world champion was forced to be towed back to the service park to all his M-Sport team to investigate the problem.M-Sport declared the problem to be a "fairly significant" issue which prompted the British squad to change the ...Keep readingView the full article

The South Korean marque has relaunched a driver development programme as previously reported by Motorsport.com, with Suninen and reigning WRC2 champion Emil Lindholm the first drivers selected to be part of the initiative. The scheme, which was first launched in 2017, aims to develop the next wave of Rally1 drivers. Suninen will step into the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid to replace the late ...Keep readingView the full article

Hyundai announced last month that Demaison, who helped Volkswagen during its domination of the WRC from 2013-2016, will assume the technical director role at the South Korean marque following a stint at Williams. The team had been operating without a designated technical director, with the renowned Christian Loriaux working as a technical adviser in a contractor role. Loriaux has now taken ...Keep readingView the full article

The Blue Oval announced today the formation of a full factory Dakar programme using a T1+ version of the Ranger, which will be run in collaboration with Neil Woolridge Motorsport in South Africa and M-Sport in the UK. The programme will effectively be launched in stages, with an existing NWM-built Ranger, powered by a 3.5-litre Ecoboost engine and based on the previous generation model, further ...Keep readingView the full article

Drivers and team representatives took part in an online meeting on Wednesday, instigated by the championship’s promoter, to share ideas to improve the championship. The WRC called a meeting following the comments made by Hyundai Thierry Neuville in the lead-up to last month’s Rally Portugal, where he claimed the championship needed to make changes to improve its appeal for manufacturers and ...Keep readingView the full article

Former McLaren F1 team-mates Hakkinen and Coulthard joined Rovanpera’s Toyota team for a pre-event test in Sardinia. At the test, Hakkinen and Coulthard both climbed aboard the current WRC specification Toyota GR Yaris alongside Rovanpera for a blast through Sardinia’s rough gravel roads in a special feature for sponsor Unibet. The 22-year-old admitted he enjoyed frightening the ex-F1 ...Keep readingView the full article

Abiteboul believes the championship's event format can be improved to increase its appeal for teams, driver and fans. The former Renault Formula 1 boss’ call to action came in response to comments made by Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera in the post event Rally Sardinia press conference. FEATURE: WRC Sardinia postcard Rovanpera feels a fresh set of tyres specifically for the rally ending ...Keep readingView the full article

Top Performer - Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm He didn't stand on the top step of the podium, but in the words of Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul, “For me, Esapekka has been the man of the rally.” The one-time WRC rally winner delivered one of the drives of his career to finish second behind eventual winner and Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville. He took the fight to ...Keep readingView the full article

The team is currently searching for at least one driver to join its WRC ranks to share the third i20 N with Dani Sordo following the tragic loss of Craig Breen in a Rally Croatia testing accident in April. Hyundai WRC2 driver Teemu Suninen and WRC2 champion Emil Lindholm have been linked to the drive, with the former testing an i20 N at the team’s Finland test base prior to last weekend’s ...Keep readingView the full article

The iconic asphalt rally has been based out of Monte Carlo for the last two years, with a service park constructed around the start/finish straight and the swimming pool chicane sections of the famous grand prix circuit. Automobile Club de Monaco has today announced that the rally will return to Gap, which has previously hosted the event from 2014-2021 due to "major works" to infrastructure in ...Keep readingView the full article

Three of the team's four drivers encountered issues with the GR Yaris while traversing water crossings during last weekend's rain-impacted round on the Italian island. Unseasonal rain showers created incredibly tricky conditions which also made the water splashes deeper and provided an extra challenge to crews. Toyota's GR Yaris appeared to particularly struggle in the water as Takamoto ...Keep readingView the full article

The Finn produced one of the drives of his WRC career as he became locked in an intense fight for victory with Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier for 14 of the 19 gravel stages, held in challenging weather conditions. Lappi ended Friday with a 0.1-second lead over the eight-time world champion only to fall 18.2s behind at the end of Saturday morning. However, Lappi applied pressure to close to ...Keep readingView the full article

The reigning world champion was expecting a tall order in Sardinia starting first on the gravel stages on Friday at a rally that has yielded a best result of fifth in three previous top-tier attempts. However, the Finn finished third behind Hyundai duo Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi after coming through desperately tricky conditions on Friday morning, before rain showers added to the ...Keep readingView the full article

Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe enjoyed a relatively comfortable run through Sunday’s four stages to complete a 33-second victory from Hyundai team-mate Esapekka Lappi. World champion and standings leader Kalle Rovanpera completed the podium in third, 1m55.3s in arrears. The journey to reach the finish was far from easy as unseasonable rain showers produced treacherous conditions ...Keep readingView the full article

Despite holding a healthy 36.4s overnight lead, Neuville elected to push while the majority of his rivals opted to preserve their cars and tyres. Heading into the final two stages of the rally, the Belgian opened up a 43.0s lead over Hyundai team-mate Esapekka Lappi, while championship leader Kalle Rovanpera maintained a lonely third, 2m11.2s adrift. Toyota’s Elfyn Evans cemented fourth ...Keep readingView the full article

The eight-time world rally champion veered off the road in stage 14 in desperately wet conditions, while holding a 4.3s lead over Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi. Ogier has taken an 18.2s lead into Saturday’s afternoon stages where the rally began to slowly unravel. The Frenchman damaged the radiator of his GR Yaris in the same water splash that caused his Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta ...Keep readingView the full article