Citroen Racing has announced it will depart the World Rally Championship with immediate effect – stating Sebastien Ogier’s decision to move to Toyota left it with no alternative. The firm announced its decision on Wednesday, confirming mounting speculation of a withdrawal. Ogier and team-mate Esapekka Lappi had a year left to run on their contracts,

World Rally Championship event winner Hayden Paddon will race in the new-for-2020 TCR New Zealand series, in a Hyundai run by his own team. Paddon Rallysport Group took delivery of a TCR-spec i30 earlier this year, the Kiwi using it to help sharpen his asphalt skills as he looked to work his way back to

While Citroen’s immediate World Rally Championship future remains unclear, Autosport has learned it will definitely not be part of the series’ hybrid era in 2022. It is understood that Citroen could pull out of the WRC with immediate effect, with its 2020 programme currently under review. Citroen has previously taken a sabbatical from the WRC

Citroen’s parent company PSA Motorsport insists it is still discussing the 2020 World Rally Championship with lead driver Sebastien Ogier. A spokesperson from the firm would not discuss speculation regarding Citroen’s potential withdrawal from the WRC. It emerged this week that Citroen’s WRC participation is under review, while a World Endurance Championship entry has just

In the space of three days, the World Rally Championship lost its 2019 season finale and potentially its most successful team of this century – Citroen – too. While WRC personnel were still making their way back from Australia following the cancellation of the event due to the horrendous bush fires that had raged in

Elfyn Evans will be announced as a 2020 Toyota World Rally Championship driver – potentially with Sebastien Ogier alongside him – as early as the end of next week. Toyota team principal Tommi Makinen has dismissed speculation he has already signed both drivers, but said his line-up could be completed imminently. His squad has been

Citroen’s future in the World Rally Championship is under review, with an immediate departure from the series reckoned to be a strong possibility. Citroen returned to the WRC in 2017 after a year away from the series was spent developing the C3 WRC. Its latest car has been, by some distance, the least successful of

World Rally Championship teams will distribute unused food to the local Coffs Harbour community before returning to Europe following the cancellation of Rally Australia. The event was cancelled on Tuesday due to bush fires spreading through New South Wales, having initially had its route dramatically shortened in a bit to to hold the event. The

The 2019 World Rally Championship finale Rally Australia has been cancelled amid concerns about the rapidly spreading fires closing in on the event’s Coffs Harbour base. Official confirmation of the decision from rally organisers is expected imminently. Autosport has seen email confirmation from rally officials to the FIA and WRC Promoter declaring the cancellation, with

There is increasing anger in the World Rally Championship service park that Rally Australia has not yet been cancelled, with its Coffs Harbour base in the path of intensifying bushfires. Rally Australia organisers are set to meet with the FIA, WRC Promoter and the teams at 1600 Australian time on Tuesday (5am in London) to

Rally Australia organisers have revealed a heavily revised schedule as a proposal to keep this week’s World Rally Championship finale running. The route for the Coffs Harbour-based event has been hit by bushfires raging up and down the east coast of New South Wales. A bulletin issued by clerk of the course Wayne Kenny outlines

World Rally champion Ott Tanak’s sensational move from Toyota to Hyundai – sealed just before his title – is only the start of the 2020 driver market machinations. In a special rallying edition of the Autosport Podcast, David Evans joins Edd Straw to consider what happens next in the WRC. Will Sebastien Ogier walk out

Chris Ingram has become the first British driver to win the European Rally Championship title since Vic Elford in 1967 after finishing fourth on the season-closing Rally Hungary. Ingram, driving a Toksport WRT-prepared Skoda Fabia R5 with Ross Whittock as co-driver, overcame two punctures and a spin on the final day to edge home on

Double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso achieved his first podium finish in cross-country rallying in the third of his Dakar Rally preparatory outings with Toyota. Alonso and co-driver Marc Coma contested this week’s Al Ula-Neom Cross-Country Rally in Saudi Arabia, where the Dakar is being held for the first time in 2020. They were

World Rally Championship finale Rally Australia will have a “significantly shortened” route – if it goes ahead at all – due to a worsening fire situation in the area. Bush fires have been burning for days in New South Wales and worsening weather conditions – including strengthening winds set to run into Tuesday – are

Rally Australia officials are becoming increasingly concerned by the onset of bush fires in New South Wales ahead of next week’s 2019 World Rally Championship finale. Because of the fires, the roads being used for the WRC event are currently closed to all traffic – including event officials hoping to set stages up for the

Ott Tanak is heading to Australia for the season finale as World Rally champion but about to leave the Toyota team for Hyundai for 2020. That’s already a tricky enough psychological situation even without the added factor that Hyundai and Toyota are still battling for the manufacturers’ championship. While no one’s expecting Tanak to be

Elfyn Evans has been tipped as Ott Tanak’s Toyota World Rally Championship replacement after he visited the team’s Finnish headquarters squad last week. Autosport revealed before Rally Spain two weeks ago that Tanak would make a shock switch to Hyundai, leaving the Toyota Gazoo Racing team with which he sealed the 2019 drivers’ championship for

Hyundai will take Craig Breen to Rally Australia in place of Andreas Mikkelsen for the final round of the 2019 World Rally Championship. The Australian round is key for Hyundai as it chases a maiden WRC manufacturers’ title, and the German-based team will arrive 18 points clear of Toyota. Mikkelsen, who won the Coffs Harbour-based

Mads Ostberg says Citroen has called off his planned World Rally Car outing on Rally Australia, as it was dependent on Sebastien Ogier retaining a shot at the 2019 title. Ostberg has been developing Citroen’s second-tier C3 R5 car this season after he was dropped from Citroen’s top WRC line-up in favour of Rally Finland

Hyundai Motorsport has confirmed Ott Tanak will join its team for the 2020 World Rally Championship season. Autosport broke the news the Estonian would leave his current team Toyota at the end of this season last week. The recently crowned World Rally Champion joins Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and Sebastien Loeb for the Korean manufacturer’s

The full story of newly crowned World Rally champion Ott Tanak’s rise and rollercoaster career is brought to life with incredible behind-the-scenes access in Ott Tanak: The Movie – which is now available to view globally. The film was originally released in cinemas in Tanak’s native Estonia in April, but can now be watched anywhere

Double British Rally champion Russell Brookes, famous for driving his ‘Andrews Heat for Hire’ liveried cars, has passed away at the age of 74. Born on August 16, 1945, Brookes began competing in the early ’60s. But it was ’74 when Brookes signed the pioneering deal with Andrews-Sykes that meant the company’s profits grew and

After new champion Ott Tanak’s shock move to Hyundai, the biggest question surrounding the 2020 World Rally Championship season is whether Toyota will move for Sebastien Ogier. Ogier tested the Yaris WRC in 2016 after Volkswagen’s withdrawal from the WRC but signed for M-Sport, where he added two more titles in a Ford Fiesta WRC.

In this episode of Gravel Notes, two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso explains his preparation for the Dakar Rally and Ott Tanak reviews his journey to World Rally Championship success. It has been said that Tanak went “through fire and water” to clinch a maiden WRC title, and Tanak talks to podcast host David Evans

Thierry Neuville says he would welcome Ott Tanak as a team-mate at Hyundai in the 2020 World Rally Championship. Autosport revealed last week that Tanak had sensationally agreed to leave Toyota for Hyundai just before clinching his first WRC title. He will line up alongside Neuville as Hyundai’s full-time drivers, with Sebastien Loeb and Dani

Citroen team principal Pierre Budar has revealed details of the failure that cost Sebastien Ogier his chance to fight for a seventh World Rally Championship title in Spain last week. Ogier went into the event 28 points behind championship leader Ott Tanak with two rounds remaining and was leading when a hydraulic issue dropped him

Toyota’s Ott Tanak has won the 2019 World Rally Championship with one round to spare as he took second place at Rally Spain, where Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville secured victory. Neuville tried hard to deny Tanak’s coronation with a perfectly controlled performance. He hit the front on Saturday when the action switched from gravel to asphalt

Thierry Neuville is on the brink of his third World Rally Championship victory of the year on Rally of Spain as Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo resisted Ott Tanak’s advances. But third place for Tanak would be enough for him to claim his first WRC title, provided he either beats or is just one place behind

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville heads Rally Spain by 21.5-seconds as World Rally Championship champion-elect Ott Tanak surged onto the podium in place of Sebastien Loeb on Saturday afternoon. The running began with Neuville, Loeb and Sordo preserving a Hyundai 1-2-3, with Toyota’s Tanak 9.8s behind Sordo. But Tanak won the first pass of El Montmell that