Rovanpera, Ogier split by a second, Evans suffers pacenote issue
Reigning world champion Rovanpera snatched the rally lead on stage six, but the margin never grew larger than a second as the part-time driver battled with a GR Yaris that wasn’t too his liking. The Finn, who ended Friday morning in third, held onto the lead despite a late attack from Ogier, who shot from […]
WRC Promoter to set out vision for the future
The meeting is expected to focus largely on conveying the promoter’s plans and initiatives regarding the promotion of the championship. It is understood the FIA will attend the discussion on Saturday morning alongside representatives from the WRC teams and members from the Ford Motor Company. The timing of the meeting arrives amid uncertainty regarding the […]
Katsuta leads as inspired Neuville impresses
Toyota driver Katsuta, starting sixth on the road, produced a strong and consistent pace across Friday morning’s four stages to take a 2.9s lead over Neuville at the midday tyre fitting zone. Reigning world champion Kalle Rovanpera managed to drive around an ill-handling Toyota to sit third, 3.3s adrift, ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak [+4.1] […]
Ford signs Carlos Sainz Sr to lead Dakar Rally programme in 2025
Sainz and double event winner Nani Roma will be two of the four drivers to represent Ford in the prestigious Dakar event in Saudi Arabia next year, with its remaining line-up to be announced at a later date. This would mark the Spanish driver’s fourth stint with the American auto giant, having periodically competed with […]
The rally test that could provide motorsport’s fossil free fuel «end game» solution
Zero, a synthetic fuel producer headed up by former McLaren, Mercedes and Williams Formula 1 technical chief Paddy Lowe and Professor Nilay Shah, is gearing up to test its synthetic fuel in the motorsport sphere for the first time this autumn. The company, founded in 2020, is set to fuel a 2B Motorsport-run Porsche 991 […]
Neuville tames Super Special to claim early lead
The Hyundai driver managed to navigate through the 2.94km beachside asphalt stage, 0.6s faster than nearest rival Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier. Without a service before tomorrow morning’s gravel stages, crews were forced to tackle the spectator test in tyre saving mode to protect rubber for Friday’s stages. “It is difficult weekend ahead of us [starting first […]
WRC drivers expect Portugal to deliver «most competitive» victory fight
This weekend marks the start of the traditional gravel rally season welcoming the strongest Rally1 field of the season to date, comprising five previous Portugal winners. Toyota has elected to field both its part-time drivers in the same event for the first time, with reigning world champion Kalle Rovanpera, a two-time Portugal winner (2022, 2023), […]
Toyota not “expecting too many changes” to WRC technical rules for 2025
The WRC is currently gripped by discussions over the technical rules for next year after teams strongly opposed the FIA’s proposal to make changes to Rally1 and Rally2 cars in a bid to boost entry numbers at events. The FIA intends to remove hybrid power from Rally1 cars and further reduce the performance of the […]
Gravel season “definitely” an opportunity for Tanak to ignite WRC title bid
The Hyundai driver heads to Portugal this week — which marks the start of the WRC’s traditional gravel season — sitting fourth in the championship and 33 points adrift of championship leader and team-mate Thierry Neuville. After uncharacteristic errors in Monte Carlo and Sweden, Tanak showed signs of his pace in Kenya before an unfortunate […]