Former Hyundai World Rally Championship competitor Andreas Mikkelsen believes his new role as Pirelli’s tyre development driver will aid his attempts to secure a full-time seat in the series again. October’s Wales Rally GB was the last time Mikkelsen competed in the category, with his sixth-place finish bringing the curtain down on a turbulent two-year

The World Rally Championship has revealed a revised calendar for the coronavirus-halted 2020 season, with the campaign now set to resume in Estonia in September. The 2020 season was put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic after just three rounds and several ensuing rallies have since been cancelled, including Finland, New Zealand and Rally GB,

Updated FIA guidelines designed to allow future rounds of the World Rally Championship to be held safely in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic have been welcomed by team bosses. The list of measures set out in the 81-page ‘Return To Motor Sport’ paper are “sensible” according to M-Sport’s Richard Millener, while his counterpart at

Organisers of Rally New Zealand fear it could be “cast into the wilderness” after it failed to appear on the draft calendar of events for next year’s World Rally Championship. Last Friday, the World Motor Sport Council named the nine locations that have contracts to stage a round of the series in 2021, including Monte

Prodrive says it will be “disappointed” if its rivals don’t perceive it as a “potential winner” when it makes its Dakar debut next year under the Bahrain Raid Xtreme banner. Prodrive announced in February that it will enter the prestigious rally raid from 2021 in a joint venture with Bahrain’s sovereign wealth Mumtalakat, and it

Rising World Rally Championship star Oliver Solberg will return to his roots by racing in the opening rounds of RallyX Nordic at Holjes in Sweden next week. Son of 2003 WRC champion Petter Solberg, Oliver began his career racing crosskarts in Scandinavia, then became the youngest ever Supercar competitor by racing a rallycross Supercar in

Motorsport UK is “optimistic” the UK will be represented in the World Rally Championship next year despite Rally GB not being included on an initial list of 2021 events. Autosport understands that two teams want a slimmed down calendar in 2021 comprising just 10 rounds, while WRC Promoter is pushing for 12, leaving 11 as

The organisers of the Ypres Rally have begun negotiations to host what could be Belgium’s first World Rally Championship event. The WRC has been hit by a string of cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving just five rallies remaining on the schedule – on top of the three events that were completed before the

Ex-World Rally Championship driver Kris Meeke could be handed a career lifeline as Pirelli’s tyre tester ahead of the marque’s return to the series in 2021. The Northern Irishman, a five-time WRC event winner, had been left without a drive for the 2020 season after being dropped by Toyota having spent just one season and

Organisers of Latvia’s World Rallycross Championship round, RA Events, are in talks with the World Rally Championship about hosting a round of the WRC this year. RA Events organises and promotes Rally Liepaja, a round of the European Rally Championship, which has been postponed this year until August 14-16. Following the latest cancellations of WRC

When the rally world reconvenes after the Covid-19 hiatus it will be without one of its most ardent supporters and knowledgeable chroniclers, Martin Holmes, who died late last week after a long battle with cancer. Martin had been part of the sport since the 1950s as a journalist, photographer and competitor who last year made

Toyota has decided against the introduction of its GR Yaris in the 2021 World Rally Championship, opting instead to continue using its current model. The Japanese manufacturer had originally planned to retire the current Yaris model after the end of the current season and replace it with a new contender based on the GR Yaris

The ASO has announced the Dakar Rally will run entirely in Saudi Arabia for a second successive year in 2021, but on a route that is “100% new”. The Dakar moved from South America to the Middle East last year, marking the start of the third chapter in the illustrious history of the rally-raid. Saudi

Fresh doubts have been cast over the viability of this season’s World Rally Championship following confirmation Wales Rally GB won’t take place for the first time in over 40 years. The Deeside-based event has become the third round in less than a week to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last Wednesday Rally Finland

Outgoing World Rally Championship chief Oliver Ciesla believes his series must return to key markets in the United States and China if it is to attract more manufacturer participation in the future. The WRC has been absent from the world’s two biggest car markets this millennium, after a planned event near Beijing in 2016 was

Leading World Rally Championship figures have told Autosport they are refusing to give up on the 2020 season, despite the cancellation of the Finnish and New Zealand rounds this week. Four events have now been called off this year because of COVID-19, leaving series promoters facing a battle as they attempt to safeguard half of

Rally New Zealand has become the fourth World Rally Championship round to get the axe as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was widely expected the Auckland-based event, scheduled for 3-6 September, would prove impossible with the New Zealand government having closed the country’s borders to shield itself from the worst of the coronavirus

Rally Finland has become the latest major motorsport event to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, further delaying the resumption of the 2020 World Rally Championship season. Finland was due to host the next round of the WRC on 6-9 August, but organiser AKK Sport announced on Wednesday that the event has now been

Craig Breen says his confidence is “higher than normal” ahead of his planned return to Hyundai’s World Rally Championship line-up for Rally Finland. Last month, the Irishman was named in the South Korean manufacturer’s three-car team for Rally Finland, alongside Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville. Running from 6-9 August, the Jyvaskyla meeting is due to

The World Rally Championship has pledged to wait until the last minute before cancelling any of its remaining rallies and remains confident of hosting at least four more events before the end of the year. The WRC was able to complete its opening three rounds in Monaco, Sweden and Mexico before the worsening coronavirus pandemic

For many fans, Group B was the golden era of the World Rally Championship, but it came at a high price. DAVID EVANS looked back at the rise and demise of the WRC’s most spectacular machines in the 18 August 2016 issue of Autosport magazine Rally cars go around corners far faster today than they

Group B’s uncrowned champion Markku Alen has fond memories of the World Rally Championship’s most revered era, despite being stripped of its final title. First shared with Autosport in 2016, it has been reproduced online to celebrate the latest in a series of free episodes from Motorsport.tv’s Duke Classic archive reliving the twists and turns

The returning World Rally Championship rounds in New Zealand and Japan are set to be axed from the 2020 schedule due to economic and logistical hurdles, Autosport has learned. The 2020 WRC season has been on an extended hiatus since March because of the coronavirus pandemic, with only three of the original 13 rounds so

The boss of M-Sport’s World Rally Championship programme says work on a new 2022 car is currently progressing “very well” despite most of his workforce being furloughed. With the WRC on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Richard Millener confirmed the free time is being used to fast-track elements of the project, although it has

Reigning World Rally champion Ott Tanak believes his start with the Hyundai team has been better than expected, despite a serious crash and his 24-point deficit to leader Sebastien Ogier. Tanak ended Ogier’s run of six world titles with Toyota last year, but decided to join Hyundai alongside Thierry Neuville for 2020. That move allowed

The Safari Rally in Kenya has become the second World Rally Championship event to be cancelled outright in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The East African event was due to return to the WRC calendar for the first time since 2002, scheduled as the eighth round on 16-19 July on the original

Efforts to bring the World Rally Championship to Northern Ireland for the first time in 11 years have been labelled “very, very exciting” by the province’s new Secretary of State. Brandon Lewis told the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee on Thursday afternoon that he is keen to work with those stakeholders behind the bid, saying:

Long before Sebastiens Loeb and Ogier dominated the WRC, fellow Frenchman Didier Auriol was a major contender. He spoke to Autosport’s KEITH OSWIN for the 22/29 December 1994 issue, shortly after prevailing in a titanic scrap with Carlos Sainz to score his first world title Didier Auriol dismissed the Network Q RAC Rally as just

Northern Ireland’s former Secretary of State was “on the cusp” of granting the province the chance to stage the British World Rally Championship round in 2021, it has emerged. The revelation was made as Julian Smith MP – who was removed from his post as part of a cabinet reshuffle in February – gave evidence

Carlos Sainz has beaten Sebastien Loeb to be named the greatest driver in World Rally Championship history in a poll run by the series promoter. The 1990 and 1992 WRC champion, who celebrated his third Dakar Rally win earlier this year, went up against nine-time world champion Loeb in the head-to-head final, with the Spaniard