Rally

Pre-event favourite Rovanpera returned to the action on Sunday following a crash on Saturday’s Stage 10 resulting in the Finn suffering a heavy head on collision with a sand bank. After receiving the all clear by doctors Rovanpera returned but was reduced to a “high-speed recce” due to some soreness and pain from Saturday’s impact. Rovanpera was deployed on Sunday morning’s first ...Keep readingView the full article

The Toyota driver produced a faultless display to fend off a strong challenge from the Hyundai pair of Ott Tanak and Craig Breen to win the event, reigniting his championship hopes in the process. Evans’ triumph at Rally Finland’s 70th anniversary event ensured he is only the second Briton to win one of rallying’s most prestigious events, following in the footsteps of Kris Meeke in ...Keep readingView the full article

The Toyota driver held his nerve across the final two stages despite coming under severe pressure from Hyundai’s Tanak to become only the second British driver to conquer Rally Finland following Kris Meeke’s win in 2016. Evans’ run to victory was ignited by winning Friday’s night stage to end the day third and 6.1s adrift of Hyundai’s Craig Breen and Ott Tanak, before rattling off ...Keep readingView the full article

Two-time World Rally champion Sainz and his former X-raid Mini teammate Stephane Peterhansel will spearhead Audi's return to cross-country rallying in the Saudi Arabia-based marathon next year, joining former DTM star Mattias Ekstrom in a three-car line-up. The Ingolstadt-based manufacturer is entering Dakar for the first time with the radical RS Q e-tron, taking advantage of Dakar's new rules ...Keep readingView the full article

The Toyota driver came under pressure on the morning’s first stage as Tanak took a nibble out of his lead before the Welshman responded with a statement on Stage 17 as Evans took 3.5s out of his rival. As a result, Evans will head into the final two stages of the rally with a 12.2s advantage over the 2019 world champion. Hyundai’s Craig Breen was unable to close in of the lead two but ...Keep readingView the full article

The championship leader has been found guilty of failing to have his helmet correctly fastened throughout Saturday’s Stage 12. The matter was reviewed by the FIA stewards resulting in Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia being issued with the time penalty and monetary fine. Luckily for Ogier, the time penalty will not affect his position overall position with the seven-time world champion ...Keep readingView the full article

The Hyundai driver had been running in fifth when a compression on Saturday’s penultimate stage sparked a series of events that led to retirement. Television cameras initially cut to Neuville slowing without his light pod on his bonnet of his i20. Neuville has since confirmed that the bump in the road shook the car and worked the light pod loose, while internally the car suffered a water ...Keep readingView the full article

After jumping from third to the lead courtesy of four stage wins in the morning, Evans came under severe pressure from Tanak, who won three consecutive stages as the afternoon loop began. Title contender Evans responded winning the day’s penultimate test before sharing the spoils with Tanak on the final stage, held on the streets of host city Jyvaskyla at night, to hold a 9.1s lead ...Keep readingView the full article

The Toyota driver headed to Finland in a rich run of form after scoring a maiden win at Estonia in July followed by a podium in Belgium, and a victory last time out at the Acropolis Rally. However, the Finn had struggled with car set-up for his first WRC attempt at Rally Finland and was unable match the outright pace of the Hyundais of Ott Tanak and Craig Breen, and Toyota’s Elfyn ...Keep readingView the full article

Title contender Evans produced one of the finest loop of stages of his WRC career, winning all four gravel tests to leapfrog the Hyundais of Ott Tanak and overnight leader Craig Breen. As a result, Evans ended the morning with a 5.6s lead over Breen while Tanak is 9.7s adrift. However, the big story of the morning was the demise of Rovanpera, who crashed out on the final stage of the ...Keep readingView the full article

The Toyota driver, who won the rally’s opening stage on Friday, suffered a wild moment on the second stage of the Saturday morning loop only 400 metres from the finish. Katsuta, partnered with a new co-driver for the event in Aaron Johnston, ran wide upon landing from a jump, resulting in the Yaris clipping a tree with the right rear. The impact spun the car across the road and into the ...Keep readingView the full article

Breen managed to close the gap to Tanak across the evening’s three stages before starring in the darkness to open up 2.8s lead over his teammate. Tanak began the afternoon by winning Stage 4 but Breen responded to win the next test to close the gap to 1.5s, before finishing third-fastest on the night stage that was won by Toyota’s Elfyn Evans. The event’s first night stage since 1994 ...Keep readingView the full article

Tanak claimed a stage win on the final high-speed gravel test of the morning to open up a 1.7s-lead over Hyundai teammate Craig Breen, who won the second stage of the day. Toyota had been billed as the rally favourites leaving Tanak to admit he would need to ”throw everything in” to challenge the Japanese marque. However, after the first trio of tests it was Esapekka Lappi, competing in ...Keep readingView the full article

Lappi is set for his first top flight WRC drive since losing his seat at M-Sport at the end of last season, having landed an outing in a fifth Yaris WRC run by the factory Toyota squad this weekend. The 2017 Rally Finland winner has previously driven for the works Toyota operation in 2017 and 2018 before stints at Citroen and M-Sport, but has found himself on the sidelines this year. Lappi ...Keep readingView the full article

Tommi Makinen was wishing he'd not won the World Rally Championship. "If this is what it means, then I think I'll give it back to Colin or Carlos," he grumbled. What could he possibly mean? Could the Finn really mean he didn't want the sport's top prize, just a few hours after clinching it in Australia? "When I woke this morning I thought I had died," he continued. "And this afternoon I ...Keep readingView the full article

Night stages will feature for the first time at Rally Finland since 1994 as a biproduct of a decision to move the event from its usual summer calendar slot to an Autumn berth in October that offers reduced daylight hours. As a result, the ultra-fast gravel event, celebrating its 70th anniversary, will feature two stages in darkness, the first being a 19.75km blast through the undulating roads ...Keep readingView the full article

World RX bosses, previously IMG and now Rallycross Promoter GmbH, have been working on a switch to electric cars at the discipline’s highest level since 2017. Having won an FIA tender process in late 2019 to supply two-motor, 500kW electric kits that can be retrofitted to existing RX1 machines or designed into new cars, Austrian firm Kreisel has been developing the concept in a Skoda ...Keep readingView the full article

The WRC2 driver confirmed on social media that he and new co-driver Craig Drew had been involved in an accident while on recce in one of the rally's stages on Thursday. Details of the accident remain unclear but the Hyundai driver said on Twitter that nobody was hurt in the accident. The pair have switched to a spare recce car to continue making pace notes to ready themselves for the rally ...Keep readingView the full article

Rovanpera heads into his home event as favourite boosted by the best run of form of his fledgling WRC career to date, after scoring his maiden victory in Estonia followed by a third in Ypres and a standout win last time out at the Acropolis Rally. Based in Finland, the Toyota WRC team has won each of the previous three Rally Finlands with the current generation Yaris and will field five entries ...Keep readingView the full article

Despite having won the previous two editions Rally Finland then driving for Toyota, the 2019 WRC champion is not regarded as the favourite to triumph at the 70th edition of famous event. That tag belongs to Toyota which will field five Yaris WRC entries that have been developed on the Finnish gravel roads. This weekend 2017 Rally Finland winner Esapekka Lappi joins the ranks alongside rally ...Keep readingView the full article