MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi has no plans to compete at the 2020 Monza Rally as a wildcard at the new World Rally Championship finale, but hasn’t ruled it out. On Friday it was announced the WRC will end its current campaign with the Rally Monza event, which since 1978 has been held as a non-championship

The FIA has announced that the 2020 World Rally Championship will conclude in Italy with the Monza Rally on 4-6 December. The Monza Rally will be the eighth round of the 2020 season, having been held annually since 1978 as a non-championship event. Over the years it has attracted stars from both the rallying and

Toyota driver Sebastien Ogier says he has not given up on taking a seventh World Rally Championship title this season, despite a costly retirement at last month’s Rally Turkey. Ogier lost his lead in the drivers’ standings to Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans when his Yaris WRC was struck down by terminal engine failure on the

The X-raid Mini team has retained Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel for the 2021 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. This will mark the duo’s third consecutive Dakar outing for Mini, both having joined the marque in 2019 following Peugeot’s withdrawal from the rally raid as a factory entrant. Sainz and Peterhansel will drive X-raid’s two

Nine-times World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb will return to the Dakar Rally in 2021 after signing a deal with the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team. Loeb will be a part of BRX’s two car line-up in the top-tier T1 category alongside 2014 winner Nani Roma, whose appointment was confirmed by the squad in September last

Craig Breen will rejoin Hyundai for the World Rally Championship’s first visit to Belgium in November, marking his third outing this season. Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle will team up with Hyundai team regulars Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak for the season-ending Ypres Rally. It will be his third WRC appearance of 2020, following previous

One-time World Rally champion Petter Solberg believes his chance to compete on the powerstage of next month’s Rally Italy is the perfect litmus test for Pirelli’s new gravel tyres. The Norwegian, who beat Sebastien Loeb to the 2003 WRC title, will get back behind the wheel of a WRC-spec Citroen C3 on the closing 4.28-mile

Elfyn Evans insists he is taking nothing for granted as the new leader of the World Rally Championship after Ott Tanak and Sebastien Ogier both suffered setbacks at Rally Turkey. The Welshman won the toughest event on the calendar by 35.2 seconds, and set the third fastest time on the powerstage to collect three bonus

Britain’s Elfyn Evans won Rally Turkey and soared back to the top of the World Rally Championship drivers’ standings after a day of high drama in the hillsides around Marmaris. The Welshman took a cautious approach throughout the most attritional event on the WRC calendar, and his reward was a third career WRC victory and

Thierry Neuville leads for Hyundai at the end of day two at Rally Turkey, delivering searing stage times as he bids to stay in the World Rally Championship title fight. Overnight leader Sebastien Loeb rolled the dice by putting two medium compound tyres on his Hyundai i20 WRC for the opening stage of the day

Ott Tanak says that he is “pretty sure” he will return for the closing leg of Rally Turkey tomorrow after retiring from Saturday’s opening test with steering failure. Reigning World Rally Champion Tanak’s Hyundai arrowed into a bank four miles from the end of the Yesilbelde stage, and although he managed to free it and

Nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb holds the overnight lead as the FIA World Rally Championship resumes in Turkey for the fifth round of its coronavirus-hit season. The veteran Frenchman, who is driving a limited schedule for Hyundai in 2020, made full use of his advantageous road position to head the field at the opening rest halt.

Craig Breen says he is “confident” of getting another shot with Hyundai for the Ypres Rally, having impressed with second place on the World Rally Championship’s return in Estonia. The Irishman, who is without a full-time seat in the sport’s top flight for 2020, impressed on the Estonian gravel by finishing just 22.2s behind team-mate

Dani Sordo will make his second World Rally Championship appearance of 2020 with Hyundai on next month’s Rally Italy after scoring his second career victory on the event last year. The 37-year-old Spaniard will drive Hyundai’s third works i20 Coupe WRC alongside regular drivers Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak in the Sardinia-based event on 8-11

Selecting the greatest rally car of all time is the challenge of our latest special podcast, celebrating Autosport’s 70th birthday. The first issue of Autosport magazine appeared on 25 August 1950 and as part of our celebrations we have taken on the task of picking out the greatest competition cars from each of the major

Sebastien Ogier has pinned his failure to challenge World Rally Championship rivals Hyundai in last weekend’s Rally Estonia on troubles with tyres and set-up on his Toyota Yaris. Six-time WRC champion Ogier finished third in the championship’s first event since Rally Mexico back in March, behind Hyundai pair Ott Tanak and Craig Breen. It means

World Rally Championship team bosses believe Rally Estonia deserves to be a regular fixture on the calendar following its debut last weekend. M-Sport’s Richard Millener and Hyundai’s Andrea Adamo told Autosport it was a successful debut for the Tartu-based competition, which was drafted in to bolster a calendar badly depleted by the coronavirus pandemic. Estonia

Rally Estonia winner Ott Tanak says the first World Rally Championship event in his home country was “one that I had to win”. The reigning WRC champion duly took victory on home soil last weekend, which was also his first win for the Hyundai team since joining at the start of 2020. His first win

Ott Tanak took a relatively untroubled home victory on Rally Estonia to record his first World Rally Championship win for Hyundai since joining this season – ahead of team-mate Craig Breen. Tanak and Breen merely had to minimise the risks in the six final stages as they held first and second respectively overnight, but there

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak took the fourth round of the 2020 World Rally Championship in Estonia by the scruff of the neck and leads after Saturday’s 10 stages. The reigning world champion survived a day in which many fancied runners found their progress stymied by tyre wear and punctures on the fast, flowing gravel stages. As

M-Sport Ford’s Esapekka Lappi drew first blood in the restart of the 2020 World Rally Championship, claiming top spot on the first stage of Rally Estonia. Lappi swept to top spot after overcoming seven-time champion and current points leader Sébastien Ogier, as the first rally since the COVID-19-enforced hiatus got underway this evening in front

Ott Tanak has topped the shakedown for Rally Estonia as the World Rally Championship finally returns to action following the COVID-19 hiatus. Reigning world champion Tanak got off to a flying start to the event on the 6.23km pre-event shakedown stage at Abissaare as the fastest driver through the stage, stopping the clock late in

Rally Germany has become the latest World Rally Championship round to be cancelled, while Rally Italy is moving three weeks earlier to avoid clashing with Formula 1’s Imola race. The Bostalsee-based Tarmac event in south-west Germany becomes the latest WRC casualty of the COVID-19 outbreak and joins Argentina, Portugal, Finland, Kenya, New Zealand, Wales Rally

Sebastien Loeb will make his second outing of the 2020 World Rally Championship season with Hyundai in next month’s Rally Turkey. The nine-time champion will join Hyundai’s full-season drivers Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak for the Marmaris-based event at the wheel of a third i20 Coupe WRC. It will mark Loeb’s first top-level outing since

Rally Japan has been axed from the 2020 World Rally Championship calendar and been replaced by the Belgian Ypres Rally. Japan had kept its slot on this year’s schedule when the FIA revealed a refreshed calendar in the wake of multiple events being cancelled following the global coronavirus pandemic. The country’s first WRC event since

This week in 1998 Colin McRae decided to leave Subaru, the team that had made him a World Rally champion, to join Ford. In two pieces, published in the 13 August 1998 and 1 October 1998 issues of the magazine, Autosport found out why “I could stay with Subaru and possibly be there for the

The World Rally Championship’s new managing director says the flexibility of Rally Turkey organisers in changing dates should help allow at least one extra round to join this season’s calendar. Originally due to run from 25-27 September, the Marmaris-based event has been brought forward by a week by the Turkish Automobile Sports Federation (TOSFED), paving

Sebastien Ogier is poised to stay in the World Rally Championship in 2021, with a new deal with current employer Toyota close to being signed. Six-time WRC champion Ogier stated in August last year that he would retire from the sport at the end of the 2020 season, although at that point he hadn’t left

The World Rally Championship has revised the starting order rules for the series’ return to action on the gravel of Estonia in September. The WRC has been on hiatus since Rally Mexico in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has seen landmark events including Argentina, Finland, New Zealand, Wales and the returning Safari Rally

Ott Tanak says the resumption of the World Rally Championship in his Estonian homeland in September is the perfect opportunity to reignite his drivers’ title defence with new employer Hyundai. Having run as a successful promotional event last year, the East European country made the step up to the top flight earlier this month, striking