Rally

Tanak will head into Sunday’s final four stages with an 8.2s advantage over Evans after long-time later Neuville crashed out of the day’s penultimate stage. Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi managed to navigate through the Saturday’s tricky asphalt stages in third after Neuville’s demise, but the Finn is some 1m09.8s adrift of the lead two. Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg is on ...Keep readingView the full article

The defending event winner appeared to be in control of the rally, having opened up an 17.2s lead over Tanak after winning three of the six asphalt tests before Stage 15 commenced. However, Neuville threw away his chance of a first victory in 2022 when he understeered wide at tight left-hander. The Belgian slipped into a deep ditch, which left the car stranded momentarily. Spectators rushed ...Keep readingView the full article

Neuville completed the morning loop with a 16.2s lead over Tanak, who briefly snatched an overnight lead away from his teammate. However, a strong showing from the home hero coupled with a transmission problem for Tanak resulted in the 2019 world champion falling away. Toyota’s Elfyn Evans was unable to produce a sustained challenge to the Hyundai duo as the Welshman ended the morning ...Keep readingView the full article

The M-Sport driver had been setting a blistering pace through the Dikkebus stage, the second of the day, and was ahead on the leading split times set by Kalle Rovanpera following an overnight rebuild of the World Rally Championship leader's Toyota. However, Breen ran wide into a left-hander and ran into a deep ditch 11.2km into the 14.2km stage. The impact with the ditch catapulted the ...Keep readingView the full article

Evans inherited the rally lead on Stage 2 after team-mate and World Rally Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera crashed out in spectacular fashion. The Welshman held the advantage until midway through the afternoon when his rally began to unravel, beginning with a slow puncture on Stage 6. Evans had gambled on taking a mixture of wet and slick compound tyres for the loop but the anticipated ...Keep readingView the full article

Neuville end Friday with a 2.5s lead over Tanak after completing an impressive turnaround from overshooting a junction on the day's opening stage that cost the Belgian 10.6s. Neuville won five of Friday's eight stages but it was his afternoon pace that lifted the Hyundai driver ahead of teammate Tanak and early leader Evans. Evans had held the lead since Toyota teammate Kalle Rovanpera ...Keep readingView the full article

The World Rally Championship leader retired from Friday's action in spectacular fashion when he misjudged a fast left-hander while leading the rally during Stage 2. Rovanpera ran wide, resulting in his GR Yaris hitting a ditch which pitched the car into a series of frightening rolls, before landing on its wheels. Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen emerged from the wreckage ...Keep readingView the full article

Evans ended the loop of four slippery asphalt stages, impacted by patchy rain, with a 2.3s lead over Tanak. The Welshman inherited the lead after teammate Rovanpera suffered a violent roll on Stage 2. Rally favourite Thierry Neuville held third, his Hyundai some 8.8s in arrears to Evans after losing time to a driver error on the opening stage. M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux had led the Ford ...Keep readingView the full article

The Toyota driver understeered through a fast left-hander and ran wide into a ditch which pitched the GR Yaris into a series of frightening rolls before eventually landing on its wheels. The car suffered a significant damage in the crash but luckily both Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen emerged from the wreckage unscathed. The pair exited the vehicle through the front where the ...Keep readingView the full article

Jos Verstappen is set to join the WRC ranks at Ypres Rally Belgium where he will pilot a WRC2 specification Citroen C3 in the tough asphalt event. The 50-year-old, who chalked up 106 starts during his F1 career with Benetton, Simtek, Footwork, Tyrrell, Stewart, Arrows and Minardi only took up rallying a year and a half ago. This year Verstappen made his competitive rally debut, driving the ...Keep readingView the full article

Changeable weather conditions have dominated the pre-event build up with WRC teams preparing for rain to dominate Friday's running at the Belgian asphalt event. Such is the challenge of Ypres' narrow country roads lined by cuts and ditches, wet weather will significantly increase the difficulty for drivers to navigate the stages cleanly. While the event is the home round for Belgian Thierry ...Keep readingView the full article

The Hyundai driver suffered his second accident of the season when he rolled his i20 N after misjudging the first corner of Stage 2. Solberg lost the rear end of the car entering the left hander which resulted in a heavy impact that damaged the car’s roll cage, ruling him out of the rally before it had barely begun. The accident left Solberg in tears as the emotions of a difficult ...Keep readingView the full article

The Hyundai driver has proven to be a specialist on the fast, narrow and twisty asphalt roads, resulting in two victories at the Ypres Rally, including a success when the the event made its WRC debut last year. While Hyundai teammate Ott Tanak has scored two wins this season in Sardinia (June) and at Finland earlier this month, Neuville is yet to stand on the top step of the podium this season ...Keep readingView the full article

Rovanpera heads to Belgium with a commanding 94-point lead over nearest rival Ott Tanak, after finishing second behind the Hyundai driver at Rally Finland two weeks ago, which lifted the 2019 world champion into second in the drivers’ standings. However, if Rovanpera is to become the youngest ever world rally champion in Belgium he will need to win the rally and for the Hyundai pair of Tanak ...Keep readingView the full article

McRae, the son of former World Rally Championship driver Alister and nephew of the late 1995 WRC champion Colin, jumped aboard a Ford Fiesta Rally3 car for a maiden outing in JWRC machinery in Poland last week. The 18-year-old completed 100 miles of running in the M-Sport Poland-built four-wheel drive Fiesta on asphalt roads, before undertaking a tour of the M-Sport workshop in Krakow. The ...Keep readingView the full article

After calling time on his SUPER GT career at the end of last year, Kovalainen has focused on his Japan Rally Championship commitments this year, stepping up to the top JN-1 class in a Rally2-spec Skoda Fabia run by Team Aicello. He and co-driver Sae Kitagawa have won five of the six JRC rallies so far this year, including the most recent event in July, ARK Rally Kamuy - meaning Kovalainen can ...Keep readingView the full article

Ott Tanak clinched a first WRC win for Hyundai on Finland's iconic fast gravel roads after the Estonian produced an against the odds performance to defeat Toyota at their home event. Tanak's success was Hyundai's second win of the 2022 season after the 2019 world champion claimed the top honours in Sardinia back in June. Although, much of the team's start to the WRC's hybrid era has largely ...Keep readingView the full article

This will be the public debut of the newly-developed GR Yaris H2 car, an experimental concept that uses hydrogen to fuel a combustion engine based on the same turbo-charged block found in the regular production car. The 1986, 1987, 1991 and 1993 champion, who won the last of his titles with Toyota, is set to pilot the GR Yaris H2 on one stage of every competition day at the tarmac-based Ypres ...Keep readingView the full article

Huttunen made his Rally1 debut with M-Sport Ford at last weekend's Rally Finland as the Finn graduated from his M-Sport WRC2 Fiesta for his home event. The 28-year-old, managed by two-time WRC champion Gronholm, impressed despite only receiving one test day in the Ford Puma in Estonia prior to the rally. Huttunen ran as high as eighth before a fuel pressure issue dropped him down the order ...Keep readingView the full article

The nine-time WRC champion had long been tipped to rejoin the Ford squad for the gravel round in Greece from 8-11 September, with his entry now confirmed by M-Sport. This will be Loeb’s fourth outing in the M-Sport Ford Puma this season after appearances at Monte Carlo, Portugal and the Safari Rally. The Frenchman has endured mixed results from his return to the WRC this year. Loeb’s ...Keep readingView the full article