Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Citroen remains 100% committed to the World Rally Championship despite its decision to drop lead driver Kris Meeke and rumours of a 2019 exit. Meeke lost his Citroen seat after he crashed heavily on last month’s Rally of Portugal. Prior to the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Sebastien Ogier took a largely symbolic World Rally Championship stage win on Rally Italy’s opening superspecial, 0.1 seconds ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta. Thursday evening’s Ittiri Arena Show was a short 1.2-mile test, with drivers already focused on

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Jari-Matti Latvala stopped to clear stones from the Rally Italy stages himself during this week’s recce, having retired from the last two World Rally Championship gravel rounds after hitting rocks. Latvala, who set the pace on Thursday’s shakedown in Sardinia, damaged the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Citroen will miss the axed Kris Meeke’s experience when it comes to set-up and development of its C3 World Rally car, according to Craig Breen. Breen will be joined on Rally Italy by Mads Ostberg, and Citroen is considering keeping the duo

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Andreas Mikkelsen admits that he has had a “nightmare” start to his first full World Rally Championship season with Hyundai, but believes he can put it behind him in Italy. Mikkelsen has struggled to find confidence and grip from his Hyundai i20

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Citroen plans to speak to five-time World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier about a potential deal to return to the manufacturer for the first time in seven years. Ogier was a Citroen protege but left at the end of 2011 as tensions between

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Sebastien Loeb says he does not “have the motivation” to commit to more 2018 World Rally Championship outings with Citroen despite Kris Meeke’s exit from the team. Nine-time WRC champion Loeb has contested two WRC events for Citroen so far this year

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The Hyundai and Toyota World Rally Championship teams have both expressed interest in signing axed Citroen driver Kris Meeke. The Northern Irishman was dropped by Citroen last week for what the team described as an “excessively high number of crashes”, in the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toyota has moved to quash suggestions that Ferrari Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen could return to the World Rally Championship with the squad next year. Raikkonen competed in the WRC for two years in 2010 and ’11 after he was dropped by

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Citroen World Rally team principal Pierre Budar felt Kris Meeke was out of control and left him with no option but to dismiss the Northern Irishman. Explaining his decision to terminate Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle’s contracts with immediate effect, Budar told

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Citroen has dropped Kris Meeke from its World Rally Championship line-up for the rest of 2018 due to “an excessively high number of crashes”. Meeke was airlifted to hospital for checks after a particularly violent accident on the most recent WRC round

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The 2018 World Rally Championship title battle took a major turn last week, but in an FIA court appeal rather than at round six in Portugal. At Rally Mexico in March reigning WRC champion Sebastien Ogier was stripped of his four powerstage

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Dakar Rally director Etienne Lavigne has revealed his team has started exploring the possibility of moving the rally raid back to the African continent for 2020. The Dakar moved to South America in 2009 after the ’08 edition of the event, which

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Citroen team principal Pierre Budar believes the design of the manufacturer’s C3 World Rally Car saved the lives of Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle in their Rally Portugal crash. Meeke went off the road after turning in to a fifth-gear left-hander on

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville took his first ever Rally Portugal victory and with it the World Rally Championship lead after his title rivals hit problems in a chaotic event. Neuville took control of the rally at the end of a frantic first full

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville is on the brink of Rally Portugal victory after consolidating his lead over Elfyn Evans on Sunday morning, with only the Fafe power stage now remaining. He started the day with a 39.8 second advantage over Evans and after

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Kris Meeke has apologised to his Citroen World Rally Championship team for the Rally Portugal crash that destroyed his C3. The Northern Irishman went off the road on a fifth-gear right hander on Saturday morning’s first run at the Amarante stage, one

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville extended his overall Rally Portugal lead over M-Sport Ford driver Elfyn Evans across the World Rally Championship’s Saturday afternoon stages, ending the day 39.8s clear. Neuville started the loop with a 29.9s advantage over Evans, but the Welshman reduced

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Citroen has confirmed its World Rally Championship driver Kris Meeke has been airlifted to hospital for precautionary checks on his back following his Rally Portugal crash. The C3 driver went off the road on the first run at the Amarante test on

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville extended his overall Rally Portugal lead on Saturday morning, ending the loop half a minute clear of Elfyn Evans after a storming run on the final stage. World Rally Championship title hopeful Neuville was 0.9 seconds quicker than Evans

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Thierry Neuville ended a chaotic first full day of Rally Portugal by extending his overall lead on the two short stages on Porto’s streets. Neuville entered the pair of mile-long stages seven seconds clear of Elfyn Evans’

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Sebastien Ogier has explained the Rally of Portugal crash which could cost him the lead of the World Rally Championship this weekend. Despite running first on the road, Ogier was in fourth position and just 7.3s off the lead when he started

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon has been airlifted to hospital for checks after crashing out the World Rally Championship’s Rally Portugal round on Friday. Paddon suffered back pain following an accident on the second run at the Ponte de Lima test, and he has

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville leads Rally Portugal after Friday afternoon’s loop, as problems for a number of World Rally Championship drivers shook up the lead order. Sebastien Ogier’s M-Sport Ford Fiesta was the afternoon’s early casualty – crashing out on the opening Viana

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Ogier has crashed out of Rally Portugal on the opening stage of Friday afternoon’s loop. Ogier was running first on the road in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta when he crashed midway through the Viana do Castelo test

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Dani Sordo leads Rally Portugal after the Friday morning loop, as Toyota hit early trouble on the first day of the event. Sordo became the fourth driver to lead the event from as many stages at the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The Toyota World Rally Championship team has described the opening morning of the Rally of Portugal as “a disaster” after losing two out of three Yaris WRCs. Dominant Rally Argentina winner and overnight Portugal leader Ott Tanak was the first to go

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toyota’s Ott Tanak leads the World Rally Championship’s Rally Portugal round after the opening superspecial stage on the Lousada rallycross circuit, beating Teemu Suninen by four tenths of a second. Suninen set the early pace in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta with a

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The M-Sport World Rally team’s appeal against Sebastien Ogier’s Rally Mexico penalty has failed. The Frenchman lost the four bonus points he scored for the second fastest time on the Mexico powerstage, following the addition of a 10-second penalty for hitting a

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. World Rally Championship crews have voiced concerns that work carried out on roads that will feature on this weekend’s Rally Portugal has cost the event some of its character. Organisers of the Porto-based event have worked on the roads – including putting