Rally

The Hyundai Motorsport driver has today announced that he has split with Borja Rozada, who only took over the seat earlier this year from long-time co-driver Carlos del Barrio, with whom he scored his three WRC wins. However, after only three events into their partnership, Sordo has confirmed that Rozada will be replaced by Candido Carrera, who has more than 30 WRC outings in the books. It ...Keep readingView the full article

A small group of media, including Motorsport.com, were invited to Audi's motorsport facility 90km from Munich for a sneak peak into the electric-powered prototype, which follows the nomenclature of Audi's SUV range. The RS Q e-tron is 4.5m long, 2.3m wide and 1.95 high, with the massive intake located on the roof one of the most visibly striking elements on the car. Two spare tyres are ...Keep readingView the full article

The event has been delayed due to the recent flooding disaster in central Europe with the venue and its facilities being used as an integral part of the relief effort in the region, specifically as a collection and distribution centre. The German round will therefore move from a July 31-August 1 date to become the final round of the series, on November 27-28. “Everybody has seen the ...Keep readingView the full article

The Irishman equalled his career-best WRC result, finishing second to Toyota's Kalle Rovanpera, in his first gravel event in a WRC car since last year's Rally Estonia, where he also finished second. Breen, who also finished second on the 2018 Rally Sweden for Citroen, is in his third season with Hyundai having shared the team's third car with Sebastian Loeb and Dani Sordo in 2019 and ...Keep readingView the full article

Top Performer - Kalle Rovanpera Take a bow, Kalle Rovanpera. The 20-year-old Toyota driver earns our top performer award after becoming the youngest ever driver to win a WRC event with a sublime performance across the four challenging days and 24 stages. Those inside rally circles have been predicting great things from the son of former SEAT, Peugeot and Mitsubishi factory WRC driver Harri ...Keep readingView the full article

Rovanpera Sr, a former factory SEAT, Peugeot and Mitsubishi WRC driver, was stage-side to witness his 20-year-old son Kalle score a record breaking win at Rally Estonia in style. A WRC winner himself in 2001, Rovanpera was in tears at the finish having overseen Kalle’s rise up the rally pyramid to become a genuine challenger in rallying’s top tier. Kalle Rovanpera joined the WRC’s ...Keep readingView the full article

The Hyundai Motorsport driver finished the event third behind breakthrough winner Toyota's Kalle Rovanpera and Hyundai's Craig Breen. However, officials have since handed the Belgian and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe a €2,500 fine and a suspended one event ban after being clocked at a speed of 190 km/h in a 90km/h road section. It proved to be an eventful final day for Neuville who suffered a ...Keep readingView the full article

The factory Toyota driver produced a measured drive on Sunday to complete the 24-stage gravel rally 59.9s ahead of Hyundai’s Craig Breen, who equalled his best WRC result on his first top-flight drive on gravel since last year’s Rally Estonia. Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen emerged as the crew to beat on Friday after a series of fastest stage times earned him an 8.5s lead over ...Keep readingView the full article

The 20-year-old Finn showed no signs of nerves as he cooly completed the opening three stages of the final day, opening his advantage over Hyundai’s Craig Breen to 54.2s. Given his comfortable margin, Rovanpera seemingly only needs to complete the final three stages to become the youngest-ever WRC winner. "It feels good, but we just need to wait for the finish," said Rovanpera ...Keep readingView the full article

Rovanpera ended Saturday in the box seat to become the youngest ever WRC rally winner after a dominant display on Estonia’s fast and flowing gravel stages. The 20-year-old transformed an overnight 8.5s lead over Hyundai’s Craig Breen into a 50.7s advantage heading into the final day on Sunday. Rovanpera produced one of the drives of the season to blitz the field in the brand new Peipsiaare ...Keep readingView the full article

After an impressive morning of attacking driving, the Toyota driver elected for a measured approach across the afternoon gravel stages, but the 20-year-old Finn still managed to increase his lead over Breen to 50.7 seconds. "It was really great day. Yesterday the gap felt small and today we could effect it much bigger," said Rovanpera, who is on the verge of becoming the WRC's youngest ever ...Keep readingView the full article

The championship contender has struggled to match the pace of his Toyota teammates, rally leader Kalle Rovanpera and fourth-placed Sebastien Ogier, which has left him almost two minutes adrift of the lead in fifth. Evans made a costly mistake on Friday's second stage when he overshot two junctions and stalled the car losing 12 seconds in the process. Since then the Welshman has struggled to ...Keep readingView the full article

Gunning for a maiden WRC win, the Toyota driver was simply untouchable at times as he made light work of a run of brand new stages. Extra work on pace notes paid off as Rovanpera blitzed the field in the opening test to record a memorable stage win. The 20-year-old went on to more than treble his overnight rally advantage over the impressive mistake free Breen from 8.5s to a commanding ...Keep readingView the full article

Rovanpera produced a dominant yet brave display, with Breen, on his return to the WRC, the only driver able to compete and live with the Finn’s pace. Three of the four stages went the way of Rovanpera’s Toyota as Breen claimed the other test win in a hotly-contested fight at the front. As a result, Rovanpera ended the day with a 8.5s lead over Breen, while a surge from Hyundai teammate ...Keep readingView the full article

The Toyota pairing had made a strong start to the seventh round of the World Rally Championship on the fast and jump laded Estonian gravel roads before drama stuck. Katsuta and Barritt were sitting third overall after stage four but the pair were forced to stop on the road section to stage five when Barritt reported neck and back pain. Barritt was then transferred to hospital for treatment ...Keep readingView the full article

Ogier has confirmed he won't contest a full season in WRC next year, as the series begins its new hybrid era, and is eyeing opportunities in circuit racing with WEC and the Le Mans 24 Hours top of the list. The Frenchman flagged earlier this year that whatever happens in 2022 he would like to remain within the Toyota team in some guise. He could contest a half WRC season or run as few as two ...Keep readingView the full article

Toyota driver Rovanpera won three of the four stages to open up a 0.2s lead over Hyundai’s Craig Breen, who was twice awarded notional stage times by officials. Breen was held up by dust created from a slowing Gus Greensmith, whose M-Sport Ford had a technical issue, and on the following stage he was slowed by a marshal standing in the middle of the road to warn him that Greensmith had pulled ...Keep readingView the full article

The Hyundai driver started the day by winning the opening stage to take the overall rally lead, but his rally began to unravel on the second test of the day when he suffered a front right puncture. Tanak was running strongly when his Pirelli tyre appeared to delaminate, ripping bodywork from the front of his i20 halfway through the 17.05km stage. The Estonian managed to reach the end of the ...Keep readingView the full article

The Finn, who topped the day’s earlier shakedown, clocked a best time of 1m42.8s following his run through the tight and technical 1.64km gravel stage in front of a big crowd. “This is one of the rallies where I like to drive and like to push, so hopefully we can fight," said Rovanpera. Hyundai’s Craig Breen emerged as Rovanpera’s nearest rival ending the stage 0.1s adrift, as the ...Keep readingView the full article

Evans is out of contract come the end of the current season, having joined Toyota from M-Sport Ford for the 2020 season, narrowly missing out on winning the championship. The Welshman has maintained that he is happy at Toyota but had emerged as a potential target for M-Sport for next season. However, it appears Evans is set to stay at Toyota for 2022 alongside rising star Kalle ...Keep readingView the full article