Toyota has welcomed the imposition of a speed limit for this year’s Dakar Rally, believing it should prevent rival squad X-raid Mini from “running away” on the event’s faster stages. Revised FIA Cross Country regulations for 2021 restrict competitors in the T1 (which includes Toyota, X-raid and Prodrive’s new BRX1 contender) and T2 classes to

Dakar Rally organisers ASO explains how it managed to work within the strict confines of host country Saudi Arabia’s coronavirus measures to ensure the running of the 2021 event. The closure of land, sea and air borders of Saudi Arabia just 13 days before the start of the second Dakar in the Arabian Peninsula set

Rally legend Carlos Sainz believes the fight for overall honours in the 2021 Dakar Rally will be between Toyota and X-raid Mini. The Dakar has proved to be a two-horse race between Toyota and X-raid since Peugeot pulled the plug on its factory programme after three successive wins between 2016-18, with the two marques sharing

World Rally Championship race winner Kris Meeke says participating in the 2021 Dakar Rally without previous rally raid experience will be “a big challenge”. Meeke is driving a PH Sport Zephyr T3 car, which uses the commercially available Can-Am Maverick X3 off-road vehicle as a base, but with an FIA-homologated tubular chassis and bespoke BOS

Andreas Mikkelsen says he wants to “dominate” every WRC2 and European Rally Championship round he starts in 2021 as he still targets a full-time World Rally Championship return. The former Volkswagen and Hyundai driver has announced he will contest both series in full next season at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia Rally 2 evo

World Rally Championship veteran Kris Meeke “felt like a kid at Christmas” during his first test for PH Sport, with whom he will compete in the 2021 Dakar Rally. Meeke will drive PH Sport’s Zephyr T3 in next month’s Dakar Rally, which will take place in Saudi Arabia across a total of 4750 miles. The

FIA rally director Yves Matton says he is “quite confident” the opening round of the 2021 World Rally Championship will go ahead, despite the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Rally Monte Carlo is scheduled to kick off the series on Thursday 21 January, although, at 174 competitive miles, next year’s instalment will be the

Sebastien Loeb says the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team is entering the Dakar Rally expecting to be competitive against established outfits like Toyota and X-raid Mini. Loeb is returning to the Dakar after a one-year absence to helm the new Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, where he will be joined by 2015 winner Nani Roma. The

Former World Rally Championship runner-up Jari-Matti Latvala has been appointed team principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad, as the team confirms its full 2021 line-up. With Tommi Makinen stepping down as team boss at the end of the 2020 season to become Toyota’s motorsport advisor, Latvala will move into the team principal role having

Oliver Solberg has been confirmed as a Hyundai Motorsport driver for the next two seasons of the World Rally Championship, beginning in WRC2 in 2021. The 19-year-old son of 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg will spearhead Hyundai Motorsport’s WRC2 assault next year, with a graduation to a World Rally Car understood to be on

The WRC has announced that February’s Rally Sweden will not go ahead as planned, becoming the first event on the series’ 2021 calendar to be cancelled due to coronavirus. Sweden was one of the three countries to successfully hold a WRC rally on its original slot this year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and

Two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom will make his debut on the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in January, driving a new Yamaha SxS machine prepared by the experienced X-Raid team. The 2016 World Rallycross Champion, who finished runner-up on his return to World RX this year, will venture into cross-country style competition by racing in

World Rally Championship veterans Dani Sordo and Craig Breen have been retained by Hyundai for 2021, and will share the team’s third car alongside Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville. Sordo, who won this year’s Rally Italy on Sardinia, will alternate with Breen in the car that the duo shared with Sebastian Loeb in 2020, although

Sebastian Ogier feels the World Rally Championship promoters should explore the possibility of more showcase-type events for future calendars following the success of Rally Monza. Rally Monza became a late replacement event on the COVID-19-hit 2020 WRC calendar, after 10 events in total were cancelled this season either due to the global health pandemic, while

Sebastian Ogier feels the World Rally Championship promoters should explore the possibility of more showcase-type events for future calendars following the success of Rally Monza. Rally Monza became a late replacement event on the COVID-19-hit 2020 WRC calendar, after 10 events in total were cancelled this season either due to the global health pandemic, while

Sebastien Ogier has revealed he will hold off fully celebrating being crowned World Rally Champion for the seventh time in eight seasons because of the ongoing COVID-19 health pandemic. The Frenchman won Rally Monza by 13.9 seconds from outgoing WRC title holder Ott Tanak to become only the second person in history to win the

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier secured his seventh World Rally Championship title with victory on Rally Monza as Hyundai successfully defended its manufacturers crown. Pre-event points leader Elfyn Evans crashed out in snowy conditions on Saturday’s SS11, opening the door for team-mate and rally leader Ogier to overturn his 14-point pre-weekend deficit. The Frenchman’s winning margin was

Sebastien Ogier closed the final full day of Rally Monza on the cusp of his seventh World Rally Championship title after Elfyn Evans crashed out. The opening loop of three stages began with a stage win for Ogier by 8.3 seconds, pushing his Toyota Yaris past Hyundai’s overnight pacesetter Dani Sordo to the top of

World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans has crashed out on the 11th stage of Rally Monza, putting his title hopes in serious jeopardy with main rival Sebastien Ogier currently leading. As snow continued to fall on the closed road stages on the final full day of competitive stages, Evans slid wide near the end of

Sebastien Ogier has taken the lead of Rally Monza after Saturday morning’s opening stages, as Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans remains on course for the World Rally Championship title. Having spent Friday on routes around the Monza circuit, the field completed its first loop of mountain road stages on Saturday. Ogier immediately threw down the gauntlet

Dani Sordo holds the overnight lead after the first full day of Rally Monza, with both Sebastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans in title contention in the World Rally Championship decider. The Spaniard won the opening stage of the morning but then M-Sport Ford’s Esapekka Lappi gambled and put on one of the two sets of

The FIA World Rally Championship has collaborated with Motorsport Network to launch a dedicated Motorsport.tv channel ahead of the 2020 finale at Monza this weekend. Launching onto Motorsport Network’s OTT platform, the championship will deliver the latest news updates and most spectacular videos from the world of rallying to the network’s 56 million-strong digital monthly

Sebastian Ogier opened the World Rally Championship’s Rally Monza on top of the leaderboard, with the Toyota driver closing out the first stage half a second ahead of Thierry Neuville. The WRC’s final event of 2020 is underway after an initial 4.3km (2.7mi) blast round the Villa Reale at Monza, with six-time champion Ogier taking

In a few short days, Elfyn Evans could become Britain’s first World Rally champion in almost two decades and join elite company that includes Richard Burns, Colin McRae and Louise Aitken-Walker. She tells NICK GARTON what he needs to do at Monza A framed copy of Autosport from December 1990 was recently restored to pride

M-Sport Ford team principal Richard Millener believes that any of the World Rally Championship’s top drivers can win Rally Monza even with the safety net of snow tyres. Following a change to the supplementary regulations, teams will now be allowed to include eight snow tyres in their total allocation for the title-deciding event, with these

A unique World Rally Championship title decider awaits this weekend at Rally Monza, where the unexpected favourite will attempt to fend off a hungry pack anxious for him to stumble on unfamiliar territory. NICK GARTON outlines the contenders to watch And so here we are: the final instalment is upon us and the 2020 World

Elfyn Evans says his 2020 World Rally Championship title challenge can be put down to a feeling of being right at home at Toyota. Evans ended his 12-year association with M-Sport last November to join Tommi Makinen’s squad on a two-year deal, and currently has a 14-point advantage over team-mate Sebastien Ogier in the drivers’

Sebastien Ogier says sealing a seventh World Rally Championship title in 2020 would mean less than his previous successes because of the drastically-shortened season. Ogier trails Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans by 14 points going into this week’s decider at Rally Monza in Italy. The Frenchman’s previous title successes came between 2013 and 2016 in a

A hydrogen-powered contender will take on the Dakar Rally in 2024. Former World Rallycross team GCK Motorsport has launched a four-year off-road programme, starting with an all-electric vehicle and culminating in a hydrogen machine. French freeriding skier and rallycross driver Guerlain Chicherit’s squad has already started testing the new GCK e-BLAST 1. It won’t contest

The Dakar Rally has released details of the route for the 2021 edition, featuring nearly 5,000 competitive kilometres divided into 12 stages that are “80-90% new”. After months of uncertainty amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the 43rd running of the Dakar and the second to take place in Saudi Arabia will start on 3 January in