Pontus Tidemand will rejoin M-Sport Ford’s World Rally Championship line-up for Rally Turkey next month. The 2017 WRC2 champion contested the opening two rounds of the 2019 season in a third M-Sport-run Ford Fiesta WRC, finishing eighth on home soil in Sweden. The Turkey start, his first gravel outing of the year, should be in

World Rally Championship exile Hayden Paddon is working on a deal to land a seat in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC before the end of the 2019 season. Paddon’s planned WRC return with M-Sport at Rally Finland collapsed after a heavy testing crash three days before the start, and M-Sport confirmed the driver was blameless

Ott Tanak looks set to end speculation in his World Rally Championship future by signing a renewed deal with Toyota, with a deal expected after Rally Germany. Tanak left M-Sport to drive for Toyota in 2018, and narrowly missed out on the WRC title last season after a late run of victories failed to undo

Craig Breen has secured a further World Rally Championship outing with Hyundai for Rally GB, Autosport has learned. Breen made his first WRC start since being dropped by Citroen for 2019 last weekend, after securing a late deal to contest Rally Finland in Hyundai’s third i20 Coupe. The Irishman impressed there, fighting for a top-five

Elfyn Evans will miss Rally Germany later this month while he still recovers from the back injury he sustained at Rally Estonia, and will be replaced by Gus Greensmith. While Autosport understands M-Sport Ford driver Evans is nearing full fitness, there’s concern about the nature of the roads in Germany aggravating his injury again, which

The FIA has instructed World Rally Championship manufacturers to comply with a clarification document concerning the rear wings on their World Rally Cars after anomalies were discovered during Rally Finland. The governing body emphasised no parts were being run illegally – all manufacturer World Rally Cars comply with the homologation documents – but that the

Toyota’s Ott Tanak increased his lead at the top of the World Rally Championship to 22 points over Sebastien Ogier after taking a second successive victory on Rally Finland. Running first on the road, Tanak led the way after the opening loop on Friday, but lost the lead to team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala in the afternoon.

Ott Tanak is one stage away from securing his second consecutive Rally Finland victory, while his World Rally Championship rival Thierry Neuville moved up a place following Hyundai team orders. Toyota driver Tanak topped the first stage of the morning on Laukaa before taking it easy on the remaining passes of Ruuhimaki and Laukaa 2

World Rally Championship points leader Ott Tanak will take a 16.4 second advantage into the final day of Rally Finland after edging away in the Saturday afternoon loop. Tanak took just one stage win after service but extended his lead over Esapekka Lappi over the remaining stages to move to within touching distance of a

Toyota World Rally Championship team principal Tommi Makinen has criticised Kris Meeke and Jari-Matti Latvala for ‘forgetting the plan’ for this week’s Rally Finland. Meeke retired from Saturday’s stages with damage to the left-rear of his Yaris WRC, while Latvala emerged from the same Kakaristo stage with a left-rear puncture. His car suffered bodywork and

World Rally Championship points leader Ott Tanak built a comfortable 13.8-second lead on Rally Finland after Toyota team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke hit trouble on the Saturday morning loop. Tanak and Latvala each took turns at the top of the standings, with Tanak using his better road position to take 3.1s out of Latvala

Toyota World Rally Championship driver Kris Meeke is out of Rally Finland with broken suspension after hitting a rock during on the Saturday morning loop. Meeke was second overnight, and was running third – just 0.6 seconds off the lead – after winning the morning’s second stage. He had been matching the split times of

Toyota World Rally Championship driver Jari-Matti Latvala moved into the lead of Rally Finland on an ultra-close afternoon loop, after which the top four are split by just 2.6 seconds. Latvala overturned his team-mate Ott Tanak’s 5.4s morning advantage with the fastest time on the second pass of Moksi to open up a slender 0.4s

World Rally Championship points leader Ott Tanak holds a 5.4-second lead over Toyota team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala after the opening loop of Rally Finland, as Thierry Neuville struggled with set-up issues. Despite running first on the road, Tanak grabbed the lead after the first stage of the day, Oitilla, and extended his advantage over the remaining

Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Thierry Neuville took an early lead on Rally Finland after winning the opening Harju superspecial by 0.7 seconds from points leader Ott Tanak. Tanak, who won last year’s event, topped the morning shakedown from Neuville and had been marginally up through the opening split, but lost time towards the end

Craig Breen began his World Rally Championship return with Hyundai by going third fastest on Thursday morning’s Rally Finland shakedown. The former Citroen driver, called up by Hyundai for what is currently a one-off outing, was second only to WRC leader and 2018 Finland winner Ott Tanak’s Toyota on his first shakedown run – outpacing

Sebastien Ogier has made clear he will depart the World Rally Championship at the end of the 2020 season. The six-time world champion always said his current Citroen contract would be his last in the WRC and reconfirmed that decision on Wednesday in a French media interview. Ogier told Autosport he was looking forward to

Craig Breen could get further outings with the Hyundai World Rally Championship team in Turkey and Britain, Autosport understands. The former Citroen driver has been called up by Hyundai for this week’s Rally Finland, which will be his first WRC start since the end of 2018. Sources in the team have admitted Breen’s deal could

Hyundai Motorsport director Andrea Adamo says his World Rally Championship team has done all it can to try to improve its Rally Finland form for this week’s event. WRC manufacturers’ championship leader Hyundai arrives at the Jyvaskyla-based event with significant upgrades to its i20 Coupe WRC. The team would not be drawn on the specifics

Hayden Paddon says he was powerless to stop the testing crash that ruined his planned World Rally Championship return in Finland this week. The New Zealander hit a rock and went off the road in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC on Monday. This video shows the moment of impact with the rock – which tore

A crash in sixth gear while testing has ruled Hayden Paddon out of his return to the World Rally Championship with M-Sport on Rally Finland. The Kiwi was halfway through his pre-event test in the Ford Fiesta WRC when he hit a rock in a blind corner, sending him off the road at high speed.

Petter and Oliver Solberg will enter October’s Wales Rally GB as a two-car team to start one World Rally Championship career and bring another to a close. The Llandudno-based event is part of Petter’s farewell tour, having announced his retirement from top level motorsport in April, and he believes it is the perfect place to

Hyundai and M-Sport Ford are trying to prise Ott Tanak away from Toyota, and the Estonian could be tempted away despite leading the World Rally Championship points’ standings. The 31-year-old has won three rallies so far this year in his Yaris WRC, but the occasional fragility of the car has fuelled rumours that he could

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas has raised speculation that he will compete in a rally again in the near future after testing a Toyota Yaris WRC on Friday. Bottas made his competitive rally debut aboard a Ford Fiesta WRC in January’s Arctic Lapland Rally – finishing fifth overall in the snow-based event – and

Ott Tanak is at the centre of the World Rally Championship silly season for 2020, with the possibility of him moving away from Toyota despite currently leading the standings. Rallies editor David Evans joins Edd Straw in the latest episode of The Autosport Podcast to discuss both Tanak’s title hopes and how likely he is

Elfyn Evans will miss next month’s World Rally Championship round Rally Finland after injuring his back at last week’s Rally Estonia, and will be replaced by Gus Greensmith. Evans finished the event in fourth place, but following physio work on his back, medical specialists have advised against tackling a rally of similar nature in a

Ott Tanak deliberately chose an adverse starting spot on Rally Estonia, in preparation for next month’s World Rally Championship event in Finland where he will run first on the road. All four WRC manufacturers sent cars to Estonia for the non-championship round, as a test for one of the series’ headline events just over the

M-Sport team principal Richard Millener says this weekend’s Rally Estonia will be the first real test of the firm’s all-new Ford Fiesta R5. Eric Camilli drove the Fiesta as a course car on the Ypres Rally in Belgium last month, but there were no official times to gauge the Frenchman’s progress. Finn Teemu Suninen –

WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla says the Kenyan Motor Sports Federation’s 2019 Safari Rally was worthy of the event’s return to the World Rally Championship for ’20. Last weekend’s candidate event reportedly ran without any safety issues and, pending an FIA report from the governing body’s WRC manager Andrew Wheatley and safety delegate Michele

WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla says the Kenyan Motor Sports Federation’s 2019 Safari Rally was worthy of the event’s return to the World Rally Championship for ’20. Last weekend’s candidate event reportedly ran without any safety issues and, pending an FIA report from the governing body’s WRC manager Andrew Wheatley and safety delegate Michele