Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has resumed the lead of World Rally Championship Rally of Spain from team-mate Sebastien Loeb as Toyota’s Kris Meeke crashed out of a podium place. After Friday’s six gravel stages, the action switched to Tarmac, and Meeke immediately dethroned Dani Sordo of third place on the opening Savalla test with a second-quickest

Sebastien Loeb has launched himself into the lead of the World Rally Championship’s Rally Spain, sealing a Hyundai 1-2-3 ahead of Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo. Despite “pushing really hard,” Toyota’s Ott Tanak has slipped from third to fifth place, 20 seconds behind Neuville. But as things stand Tanak, who Autosport has confirmed will switch

World Rally Championship leader Ott Tanak has signed for Hyundai and will drive alongside his current title rival Thierry Neuville in the 2020 season. Autosport’s sources have confirmed the deal was completed earlier this month. Tanak, who has been driving for Toyota for the last two years, denied any such agreement was in place and

Dani Sordo leads Thierry Neuville in a Hyundai 1-2 on the first morning of Rally Spain, as defending World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier’s 2019 title hopes took a battering. Ogier made the best possible start by winning the opening Gandesa stage, pulling a slender 0.7-second advantage over Sordo and a further 0.3s over Neuville. But

Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso has confirmed he will compete in January’s Dakar Rally with Toyota Gazoo Racing. The Spaniard has been seen testing and competing in the team’s Hilux race car this season, but it took a trio of top 10 times on the recent Morocco Rally to finally convince Alonso that

Carlos Sainz Sr says improvements to the front end of Mini’s Dakar Rally challenger have left him confident about his chances of fighting for a third win next year. Sainz joined the X-Raid Mini squad for last year’s Dakar, finishing 13th in a Mini JCW Buggy, and earlier this month was confirmed for another assault

Hyundai plans to introduce two new cars in the next two years as part of an overhaul of its R5 programme. The manufacturer’s i20 R5 has struggled to match M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta, Skoda’s Fabia R5 and Volkswagen’s new-for-2019 Polo R5 that is effectively sold out until the summer of ’20. Hyundai’s motorsport director Andrea Adamo

Citroen will not use the radical World Rally Championship aero upgrades it recently tested on this week’s Rally of Spain. Pictures – supplied by Hugo Blancher – detailing major changes to the aero on Citroen’s C3 WRC appeared last week and suggested the team was trying the most drastic aero alterations seen since the current

Citroen has entered a third C3 WRC to be driven by Mads Ostberg for next month’s season-closing Rally Australia to potentially boost Sebastien Ogier’s World Rally Championship title hopes. After missing out on a Citroen seat to Ogier and Lappi in 2019, Ostberg has stepped back to help the team develop its new R5 car.

Autosport is saddened to report the passing of former Mitsubishi Ralliart team principal and London to Sydney Marathon winner Andrew Cowan. Cowan retired from the Mitsubishi World Rally Championship team at the end of the 2005 season, having directed the Japanese manufacturer’s dominance of Group A rallying in the late ’90s. It was under Cowan’s

Criticism of the Llandudno Wales Rally GB service park could be answered if the World Rally Championship follows the lead of Formula 1, according to M-Sport team boss Richard Millener. Britain’s round of the WRC was criticised by some teams due to the Llandudno town centre service park which was disjointed and unable to bring

Citroen has revealed the most radical aerodynamic updates seen since the start of the new era of World Rally Cars in 2017 ahead of Rally Spain. The French team has been testing its car in Spain ahead of next week’s Salou-based event, a crucial event in Ogier’s efforts to take his seventh straight championship and

With competition out on the stages, and controversy in the service park, Wales Rally GB threw up another exciting World Rally Championship event Llandudno. The moving of the service park to seaside town Llandudno is the chief topic of conversation for the latest episode of the Gravel Notes podcast with David Evans, as Autosport’s rallies

Hyundai team boss Andrea Adamo says he is taking a “big picture” view of whether to keep Craig Breen for the 2020 World Rally Championship season. Former Citroen driver Breen was given an initial Hyundai chance in Finland, where he impressed the team with seventh place after giving up sixth to help Thierry Neuville’s title

Kris Meeke is edging ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala in the race to stay at Toyota for the 2020 World Rally Championship due to his greater consistency. With Toyota thought likely to keep WRC leader Ott Tanak and to have already signed 19-year-old WRC 2 Pro champion Kalle Rovapera, Tanak’s current team-mates Meeke and Latvala are

Dani Sordo will remain a Hyundai driver next season, sharing an i20 Coupe WRC for seven of next year’s 14 rounds of the World Rally Championship. Sordo had been linked with a move to Toyota but Autosport reported last month that he was set to stay at Hyundai into a seventh season instead. The Spaniard,

The FIA is stepping up its efforts to simplify the World Rally Championship’s class structure into a five-tier ladder of progression. Last week’s FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting agreed on revisions to current regulations in an effort to streamline WRC 2 Pro and WRC 2. This is part of FIA rally director Yves Matton’s

Ott Tanak strengthened his World Rally Championship title bid with victory on Rally GB, scoring a maximum 30 points by topping the Brenig powerstage. Toyota team-mate Kris Meeke had led early on Friday morning, with Tanak starting on the back foot after a mistake on the rally-opening Oulton Park superspecial. A storming drive on the

Rally GB’s Great Orme stage has been called off because rough weather conditions mean the team of divers required for safety reasons cannot get close enough to the stage. The 2.945-mile asphalt stage on the famous headland near Llandudno was due to conclude Sunday morning’s loop of the World Rally Championship round. Part of the

World Rally Championship stewards decided against penalising Sebastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen for deviating from the prescribed Rally GB route because of how the stage was marked. Controversy had erupted in Wales on Friday when it was suggested the three drivers had not followed the correct route through a chicane after the finish

Ott Tanak added another 0.9 seconds to his Rally GB lead by winning the Colwyn Bay spectator stage, further increasing the Toyota driver’s advantage over his World Rally Championship rivals. Based around the promenade of Colwyn Bay, only a few miles away from rally HQ in Llandudno, the short 1.5-mile stage was the only night

Thierry Neuville scored two Rally GB stage wins to take second place from World Rally Championship title rival Sebastien Ogier on Saturday afternoon, though Toyota’s Ott Tanak still leads. Tanak suffered a scare early on the Sweet Lamb stage when a compression ripped the rear bumper off his Toyota Yaris WRC, which caused additional noise

World Rally Championship points leader Ott Tanak has edged further ahead of chief rival Sebastien Ogier on Rally GB, but Elfyn Evans dominated the Saturday morning loop for M-Sport. Evans had lost nearly a minute on Friday with damaged suspension after contact with a bank on Elsi but has now surged back up the leaderboard

A row over alleged deviation from the prescribed route of a Rally GB chicane could have a significant impact on the result of this weekend’s World Rally Championship round. Sebastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen are all understood to have deviated from the route at a chicane following the finish of the short Slate

Ott Tanak stormed into the Rally GB lead on Friday night’s stages, leaping from fourth to first while erstwhile leader and Toyota World Rally Championship team-mate Kris Meeke fell back. Tanak benefited from running first on the road for Dyfnant, winning the stage by 5.7 seconds from Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen in near-daylight conditions as drivers

Kris Meeke continues to lead Rally GB for Toyota, but is under heavy pressure from reigning World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier. Fastest times on both Elsi and Penmachno – the afternoon loop’s two full-length stages – launched Citroen driver Ogier forwards from the fifth place in which he had ended the morning. He is now

Toyota’s Kris Meeke kept himself in the lead of his home World Rally Championship round, Rally GB, on a very wet Friday morning. Though Meeke did not win any of the loop’s four stages, his consistently quick pace meant he headed for service with a six-second lead over Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville. Meeke managed to

Kris Meeke leads Rally GB following the Oulton Park opener, with Petter Solberg a sensational third and World Rally Championship leader Ott Tanak only 13th after an error. Crews were greeted with an extremely wet and slippery stage for Oulton’s first appearance on a WRC itinerary since 1993, with the 2.25-mile mix of asphalt and

Autosport previews this weekend’s Rally GB with a special podcast episode recorded live from the World Rally Championship service park, in association with the new Gravel Notes podcast. Autosport Rallies Editor David Evans is joined in Llandudno by drivers including 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg and 2017 Rally GB winner Elfyn Evans as they

Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso says this week’s Morocco Rally will give him a “concrete” idea of whether he wishes to continue with plans to contest the Dakar Rally. Alonso faces his first major test in his fledging cross-country rallying career in the five-day event based around Fez, the traditional warm-up event for next