Rally Portugal has become the first event on this year’s World Rally Championship schedule to be cancelled outright as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. Originally scheduled as the sixth round of the 2020 campaign, the Porto-based event was due to take place on 21-24 May before it was indefinitely postponed in late March

Dakar Rally director David Castera says the world-famous rally raid will take place in January 2021, but may abandon plans to involve extra countries in next year’s route. The coronavirus pandemic, which has already recorded almost three million confirmed infections and more than 200,000 deaths worldwide, has also severely affected sporting events. Among them, motorsport

Despite every hackneyed cliché, natural talent doesn’t exist. Sadly, there is no gene for the perfect Scandinavian flick or negotiating Eau Rouge flat out. These are skills that take countless hours to develop and are possessed by the rarest of breeds. Yet, relentless hard work alone isn’t enough to succeed, either. Raising a champion requires

In Motorsport Heroes, the full-length feature film by Manish Pandey now available on Motorsport.tv, four legends of our sport share their successes, failures, personal struggles and life-threatening accidents. One of those heroes is Michele Mouton, who talks about how her WRC career ended amid the tragedy of the 1986 Tour de Corse. Mouton, who is

World Rally Championship winner Petter Solberg says he is in discussions with two car manufacturers to return to the WRC with his own team. The 2003 world champion with Subaru, Solberg won 13 WRC events in a decorated career that included a three-year stint as an independent following Subaru’s withdrawal in 2008. He officially retired

The FIA has confirmed the appointment of Compact Dynamics as the exclusive supplier of hybrid systems to the World Rally Championship from the 2022 season. The FIA launched an invitation to tender last year for the 2022‐2024 seasons when the next generation of Rally1 vehicles are introduced. FIA rally director Yves Matton has previously told

M-Sport World Rally Championship driver Esapekka Lappi admits he was “surprised” that six-time champion Sebastien Ogier elected to continue after losing the 2019 title to Ott Tanak. Ogier had rejoined the Citroen team last season after two years driving M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta WRC car, but Tanak’s breakthrough title ended Ogier’s streak of six titles in

The 2020 World Rally Championship has been hit by further delays due to the coronavirus outbreak, with Rally Portugal and Sardinia officially being postponed. Last week’s Rally Mexico was ended early as a result if impending travel restrictions in the US threatening travel chaos for the paddock. Winner Sebastien Ogier said afterwards that the rally

Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville believes that the proposed World Rally Championship’s technical regulations for 2022 will make it “less interesting” and water down the driving appeal of the series. When they are presented to the FIA’s World Motorsport Council in June this year, the proposals will see increasing reliance on off-the-shelf components and a reduction

Six-time champion Sebastien Ogier took his first win in the World Rally Championship as a Toyota driver on this weekend’s truncated Rally Mexico. Ogier delivered a commanding performance to join fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb as the only six-time winners of the event, elevating him to the top of the championship table, eight points clear of

The World Rally Championship’s Rally Mexico event will end this evening to allow participants to get home as travel restrictions mount worldwide to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The FIA announced the early termination of the third date of the 2020 WRC in view of the increased precautionary measures being introduced to protect the

Saturday morning’s World Rally Championship loop on Rally Mexico had the three different drivers winning stages, with overnight leader Sebastien Ogier continuing to hold a secure lead. A revised starting order for the new day put Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville at the front of the field, sweeping the stages after retiring on Friday with an electrical

Toyota World Rally Championship driver Sebastien Ogier leads M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen by 12 seconds after Friday’s Rally Mexico stages. Having assumed the lead on the second stage of the morning loop, Ogier quietly got on with the job of building a cushion while rest of the front-runners struggled. The Frenchman’s Toyota team-mate, championship leader Elfyn

Six-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier put his stamp on this week’s Rally Mexico with an assured first loop of stages in the mountains outside Guanajuato. Having admitted to being preoccupied by the threat of Coronavirus ahead of the event, Ogier delivered on his promise to banish such thoughts on the first full day and

The World Rally Championship has announced that next month’s Rally Argentina has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Deferring the date of the rally, originally scheduled to take place on 23-26 April, comes at the direction of the Cordoba provincial government in accordance with new measures implemented by the government of the Argentine Republic

Joint World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville stunned a capacity crowd in Guanajuato to take the overnight lead at the start of the 2020 Rally Mexico. On his first pass through the short opening stage layout, Neuville’s time of 59.1 seconds put him 0.4s in front of the driver with whom he shares the top

Rally Mexico organisers say the third World Rally Championship round of 2020 will go ahead as planned despite coronavirus fears, as the event is “fully aligned with national guidelines”. To date, Mexico has seen just a dozen reported cases of COVID-19 among its population of almost 129 million – none of which have been reported

Elfyn Evans will be allowed to push for the World Rally Championship title in 2020 following his first win for Toyota in Sweden. After beating reigning champion Ott Tanak to victory last weekend having led after every stage, Evans is now equal top of the championship standings with Tanak’s Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville, albeit Evans

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans claimed his second career World Rally Championship victory after coming through the final stage of a shortened Rally Sweden. Evans dominated the event from the opening stage on Friday morning, winning five of the nine stages, and beat defending world champion, Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, by 12.7 seconds. Kalle Rovanpera took a sensational

Elfyn Evans is closing in on his second World Rally Championship win as he leads Rally Sweden by 17.2 seconds to Ott Tanak. Toyota’s Evans set the fastest time on all three of Saturday morning’s stages and, though he was only fourth on the afternoon’s Torsby Sprint stage, he went quicker than reigning world champion

Toyota World Rally Championship driver Elfyn Evans has extended his Rally Sweden lead to 16.9 seconds after winning all three of Saturday morning’s stages. Evans started the day with an 8.5s advantage over the Hyundai of Ott Tanak but managed to double that lead, making the most of the tricky terrain in the warmer weather.

World Rally Championship returnee Jari-Matti Latvala will take no further part on Rally Sweden following his Friday exit with an electrical issue. The four-time Rally Sweden winner was making his first start of the season in a privateer Toyota Yaris WRC, having lost his factory drive with the make at the end of last year.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans remains in control of Rally Sweden at the end of the opening day of the shortened event, as reigning champion Ott Tanak reclaimed second. Evans dominated proceedings in the morning, winning two of the first three stages to take an eight-second lead into service after four stages over his team-mate Kalle Rovanpera.

Elfyn Evans has opened up a lead of almost eight seconds over his Toyota World Rally Championship team-mate Kalle Rovanpera following the opening loop of stages on Rally Sweden. The Welshman won two of the morning’s three stages in changing road conditions to hold a lead of 7.9s over Rovanpera, who impressed in the second

Rally Sweden’s opening Karlstad superspecial has been cancelled as concerns continue over the unseasonably warm temperatures affecting the World Rally Championship’s only snow-based event. The rally’s traditional curtain-raiser uses the city’s trotting track with drivers normally competing in pairs on the 1.18-mile course. It had been scheduled for 2000hrs local time tomorrow (Thursday), but following

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier is hopeful that a new position in the road order will help him overcome his recent Rally Sweden “struggle” in the World Rally Championship. Ogier has three wins in Sweden, more than any other non-Scandinavian driver. However, the last two editions of the event have not gone to plan for the six-time

Wales Rally GB will move back to its Deeside service park in 2020, after one year in the Llandudno town centre for Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship. The move to the North Wales coastal town Llandudno last year was hailed as taking the teams and cars closer to the people, as Deeside is

Ott Tanak says he has “learned a very good lesson” and needs to “focus more than ever” on Rally Sweden, after crashing out of his Hyundai World Rally Championship debut. Tanak rolled off the side of a ravine on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally on the first full day of the event, which ruled him

Four-time Rally Sweden winner Jari-Matti Latvala hopes his return to top-flight competition in a privately entered Toyota on next weekend’s event will trigger more 2020 World Rally Championship outings. Latvala lost his full-time Toyota seat for 2020, as the marque elected to field an all-new line-up of Elfyn Evans, Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera. It

The GR Yaris that Toyota will use in the 2021 World Rally Championship has commenced testing, with long term development driver Juho Hanninen behind the wheel. A video released by the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team on Friday reveals the car being tested on heavy snow, with a selection of onboard and action shots