Officials at the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) are putting the final touches to a ground-breaking new start to this weekend’s Manateq Qatar International Rally, round one of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship. A later than usual start is planned at Souq Al Wakrah to draw in spectators for an exciting new super […]
By David Evans The boss of Mexico’s World Rally Championship round has promised to take the event “back to basics” for 2020 after this year’s troubled event.The Leon-based rally, now in its 15th year in the championship, had become a standard-bearer in terms of layout and spectator education. But this year it was heavily criticised, […]
A superb second place finish for Ott Tänak on Rally Mexico yesterday kept him at the top of the World Rally Championship’s drivers’ table. Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team also head the manufacturers’ standings, with all three Yaris WRC drivers having finished in points-scoring positions. As championship leader going into the event, Tänak […]
SÉBASTIEN OGIER CLAIMED HIS FIFTH RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO VICTORY ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON TO EAT INTO OTT TÄNAK’S EARLY SEASON FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP ADVANTAGE. Ogier never relinquished the lead after moving his Citroën C3 to the front of the four-day encounter on Friday afternoon. He headed Tänak by 30.2sec after the Estonian outgunned Elfyn Evans […]
OGIER CLAIMED HIS FIFTH RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO VICTORY ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON TO CLIMB TO SECOND IN THE FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP. The Frenchman, driving a Citroën C3, was never headed after taking the lead on Friday afternoon and won the season’s third round by 30.2sec Ott Tänak outgunned Elfyn Evans in a final day fight […]
OTT TÄNAK SNATCHED SECOND PLACE FROM ELFYN EVANS AT RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO AFTER WINNING SUNDAY MORNING’S OPENING SPEED TEST. The Toyota Yaris driver blasted through the shortened 21.10km Alfaro stage 4.2sec quicker than the Welshman’s Ford Fiesta. He turned a 2.2sec deficit into a 2.0sec advantage. Tänak took a risk with his tyre choice for […]
SÉBASTIEN OGIER REMAINED ON COURSE FOR A FIFTH RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO VICTORY AFTER RECOVERING THE LEAD FOLLOWING A MAD MORNING IN THE MOUNTAINS ON SATURDAY.The Citroën C3 driver ended the penultimate leg with a 27.0sec lead over Elfyn Evans as fierce heat and tough gravel roads continued to take a toll on the FIA World […]
SÉBASTIEN OGIER LOST AND THEN REGAINED THE LEAD OF RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO DURING A CRAZY SATURDAY MORNING.He returned to León’s service park with a 19.2sec advantage over Elfyn Evans, with Ott Tänak a further 21.8sec adrift in third. However, those figures hide a mad morning in the dusty mountains. The drama began when Esapekka Lappi […]
SATURDAY MORNING’S OPENING SPEED TEST AT RALLY GUANANJUATO MEXICO WAS NEUTRALISED AFTER ESAPEKKA LAPPI SLID OFF THE ROAD CLOSE TO THE FINISH, LEAVING HIS Citroen C3 PARTIALLY BLOCKING THE TRACK. The Finn slide wide on a left corner 800 metres from the end of the Guanajuatito special stage. The rear of his Citroën C3 dropped […]
BOLIVIA’S MARCO BULACIA HELD A SLENDER LEAD IN WRC 2 AT RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO AFTER A THRILLING BACK-AND-FORTH BATTLE WITH HOME FAVOURITE BENITO GUERRA ON FRIDAY.Eighteen-year-old rising star Bulacia ended the leg 9.8.sec ahead in a Skoda Fabia R5 on his return to the WRC for the first time since last year’s RallyRACC Catalunya – […]
SÉBASTIEN OGIER KEPT COOL IN THE SWELTERING HEAT TO LEAD RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO AFTER FRIDAY’S INCIDENT-FILLED OPENING LEG.The world champion headed Elfyn Evans by 14.8sec after a tough day of dirt road action in the mountains near León sidelined closest rivals and Hyundai i20 team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Dani Sordo. Two morning speed test […]
ANDREAS MIKKELSEN HELD A SLENDER RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO LEAD OVER WORLD CHAMPION SÉBASTIEN OGIER FOLLOWING A HOT AND DUSTY FRIDAY MORNING IN THE MOUNTAINS NEAR LEÓN.Having won today’s opening El Chocolate speed test in his Hyundai i20, Mikkelsen ended the loop with fastest time on the asphalt special stage surrounding the city’s service park to […]
ANDREAS MIKKELSEN TOOK THE LEAD OF RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO AFTER WINNING FRIDAY MORNING’S INCIDENT-FILLED OPENING SPEED TEST.The Norwegian, lying second after last night’s street stage in Guanajuato, was fastest through El Chocolate by 2.4sec in his Hyundai i20 to lead Sébastien Ogier by 2.9sec. “It was very hard to know how much to push. If […]
By: David Evans Co-author: Alasdair Lindsay WRC crews were left fuming about a ‘dangerous’ jump in Thursday evening’s opening stage of Rally Mexico, which had to be cancelled.A jump was added near the end of the 1.14km-Guanajuato street stage, the severity of which threw the rear of the cars into the air. Organisers called a […]
CHAMPIONSHIP LEADER OTT TÄNAK SUFFERED A SETBACK TO HIS RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO HOPES WHEN HIS TOYOTA YARIS STOPPED EARLY IN THURSDAY MORNING’S SHAKEDOWN.The Estonian, who leads the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time heading into the season’s opening gravel round, parked his car 4.5km into his first attempt at the 5.31km Llano Grande […]
RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO’S OPENING SPEED TEST THROUGH THE STREETS OF GUANAJUATO WAS HALTED ON THURSDAY NIGHT FOR SAFETY REASONS AFTER A JUMP RAMP SHORTLY BEFORE THE FINISH BECAME DAMAGED.Esapekka Lappi was fastest through the 1.14km special stage in a Citroën C3 but the test was curtailed before championship frontrunners Ott Tänak, Thierry Neuville and Sébastien […]
CITROËN RACING’S PREPARATIONS FOR RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO (7-10 MARCH) WERE SAVED BY AN AIRLIFT OF ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT AFTER MUCH OF ITS FREIGHT WAS DELAYED IN EUROPE ON A STRICKEN TRANSPORTER SHIP. Faced with a lack of service park kit and spare parts, the team flew 15.6 tonnes of freight from France to Mexico – including […]
OTT TÄNAK FACES A MASSIVE TASK AS HE LEADS THE FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE FIRST TIME INTO THIS WEEK’S THIRD ROUND IN MEXICO. His ‘reward’ for winning in Sweden last month and moving top of the standings is to head the start order for Rally Guanajuato Mexico (7 – 10 March), the first […]
Citroen have revealed they will leave the FIA World Rally Championship at the end of the 2020 season unless a form of electric technology becomes part of the regulations in the series. The current regulations, introduced in 2017 see no hybrid or electric power being used in the 1.6 litre turbocharged four wheel drive cars, but the French […]
Ott Tanak during Rally Mexico 12 months ago. Photo Credit: Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool.The third round and the first gravel event of the year in the 2019 FIA World Rally Championship, Rally Mexicotakes place this weekend with several drivers wanting to improve on poor results last time out in Sweden. Getting underway on Thursday evening with a short […]
M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s Elfyn Evans says he and the team want “to challenge for top results again” at next weeks Rally Mexico.Evans finished fifth on Rally Sweden last month and was one of four driver who were battling for second position throughout the snow event and the Welshman wants to build on his result last time out. Speaking ahead […]
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Ott Tänak says despite running first on the road at next weekends Rally Mexico, “it is possible to have a good result.” Estonian Tänak, who won the second round of the 2019 FIA World Rally Championship last time out in Sweden has a seven-point lead over Thierry Neuville but will have to be the opening car on the first gravel […]
By:David Evans Ex-Hyundai driver Jari Huttunen’s Rally Sweden drive has landed him firmly back in the running for a World Rally Championship factory seat. The Skoda Fabia R5 driver’s efforts were one of the talking points of last month’s Torsby-based event. The 25-year-old went off the road while fighting for the lead with WRC 2 […]
Motorsport global governing body, Federation Internationale de l’automobile (FIA) and commercial rights holders of the World Rally Championship, WRC Promoter has seconded two technical experts who arrive in Nairobi today. The duo will work alongside Kenyans to deliver a top-notch WRC Candidate Event in July. Finnish Jarmo Lehtinen, a veteran navigator with 15 WRC victories as […]
Baldev Singh Chager navigated by Ravi Soni in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 10 R4 won the KCB Kajiado Rally taking the lead in the Kenya National Rally Championship log.The Flying Singh won four out of the five stages leading the rally from start to finish! KCB Bank Kenya Kajiado Branch Manager Mr.Dickson alongside rally fans […]
M-Sport has proved to its WRC opposition that it is still a team to be feared, says team boss Rich Millener. After a brief period when the team’s continuing presence in the 2019 WRC was left in doubt, the outfit’s driver Teemu Suninen battled with Toyota’s Ott Tänak for the Rally Sweden lead earlier this […]
Prime Minister and Minister of Culture support WRC promotional event at Rally Estonia WRC manufacturer teams invited to compete at three-day rally Fans to enjoy WRC passion ahead of championship fixture in Finland Tallinn, 1 March 2019 – Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas today (Friday) gave his formal support to WRC Promoter’s plans for a […]
Crews ready for first gravel rally of 2019 Things are looking up – literally – as we head for the high altitude and hot temperatures of Rally México, round three of the 2019 WRC season. We will be aiming to continue our competitive start to the year following podiums in Monte-Carlo and Sweden. We will […]
TOMMI MÄKINEN IS CONFIDENT THE OVERHEATING PROBLEMS THAT DOGGED TOYOTA GAZOO RACING AT RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO IN 2017 AND 2018 WON’T BE AN ISSUE DURING THIS YEAR’S EVENT (7-10 MARCH).Featuring stage altitudes of up to 2,700 metres and scorching summer temperatures, the championship’s upcoming Mexican round is one of the toughest on the calendar. Since […]
For almost a decade, the names Solberg and Subaru were woven into a world championship-winning tapestry. Brothers in arms, the two were inseparable in the pursuit of excellence, success, glory.Petter Solberg’s 13 rally wins helped elevate the little-known Subaru brand from relative obscurity to a legend in world rallying. As the first Norwegian to win […]
Last year, Ken Block built an Escort Cosworth rally car for Gymkhana 10. After he was done filming, he took the car racing. It completed the Oregon Trail Rally without issue, but was later deemed a total loss after Block had a rollover at the New England Forest Rally that set the car ablaze. Now, […]
Marcus Gronholm has ruled out any further World Rally Championship appearances after a difficult Rally Sweden.Although the Finn appeared on the pace in testing and indeed beat fellow returning star Sebastien Loeb on Thursday evening’s head-to-head at Karlstad, he got stuck in a snowbank on Friday morning. The warmer conditions for the 2019 running of […]
KEY OFFICIALS AT RALLY GUANAJUATO MEXICO (7 – 10 MARCH) TOOK PART IN A ‘MINI RALLY’ IN HOST CITY LEÓN TO ENSURE THEY ARE READY FOR THE OPENING GRAVEL FIXTURE OF THE WRC SEASON.More than 80 people from diverse areas of the organising team received training ahead of the third round of the FIA World […]
MADS ØSTBERG ADMITTED THE TRANSITION FROM CITROËN’S C3 WORLD RALLY CAR TO THE R5 VERSION PROVED TOUGHER THAN HE THOUGHT AT RALLY SWEDEN LAST WEEKEND.The Norwegian won WRC 2 Pro on his category debut but was uncomfortable throughout the four-day snow and ice event as he felt he exceeded his and the car’s limitations in […]
ORGANISERS OF RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA (13-16 JUNE) ARE STICKING WITH A WINNING FORMULA FOR THIS YEAR’S EVENT WHICH FEATURES A ROUTE ALMOST UNCHANGED FROM 2018.One of the events included in the inaugural WRC calendar in 1973, the Italian round moved to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia in 2004 and has earned a reputation as one […]
DANI SORDO WARMED-UP FOR HIS WRC SEASON DEBUT IN MEXICO NEXT MONTH WITH A DOMINANT VICTORY AT RALI SERRAS DE FAFE IN PORTUGAL AT THE WEEKEND.Driving a Hyundai i20 R5 for the first time on gravel, the Spaniard and co-driver Carlos del Barrio won 13 of the 14 special stages to win the opening round […]
Triple title winner will maintain his links with the FIA European Rally Championship in 2019.European champion from 2015-2017, Kajetanowicz has joined forces with Baumschlager Rallye & Racing to drive an all-new Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 for his second season in the world championship following his graduation from the ERC. Although he will continue to compete […]
By: David Evans M-Sport has proved to itself and its World Rally Championship opposition that it is still a team to be feared, says boss Rich Millener. After a fraught winter in which the team’s participation in the 2019 WRC was in doubt, M-Sport driver Teemu Suninen battled with Toyota’s Ott Tanak for the Rally Sweden […]
Organisers of the ENEOS International Rally of Whangarei are proud to announce that global motorsport superstar Ken Block will return to the event as part of his ‘Cossie World Tour’ on May Block shot to fame through his series of Gymkhana videos on YouTube that were produced around schedules that have included the World Rally […]
Citroen Total Racing World Rally Team’s Sébastien Ogier admitted that he had to “attack very hard” to claim two championship points on the Power Stage of Rally Sweden. Defending World Rally Champion Ogier retired from the snow event midway through Saturday after hitting a snowbank before restarting under the Super Rally rule and finished fourth on the rally ending Power Stage. The Frenchman […]