Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Sebastien Loeb’s World Rally Championship comeback looks highly unlikely to continue into 2019 because Citroen team principal Pierre Budar is reluctant to allow the nine-time champion to compete part-time again. Loeb contested the Mexico and Corsica events earlier this year as part

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The presentation of the 2019 Dakar Rally route, scheduled for Monday, was postponed by organiser ASO after the last-minute withdrawal of Chile from the event. Initial plans for the 41st edition of the Dakar included a new country – Ecuador – in

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Reigning World Rally champion team M-Sport Ford says it has identified issues with low-grip stages that caused its Fiestas’ lacklustre performance on the last WRC round in Argentina. Malcolm Wilson’s team believes the problem was specific to certain conditions and will not

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Reigning three-time European Rally champion Kajetan Kajetanowicz will move into the World Rally Championship’s WRC2 class for the rest of 2018. Kajetanowicz has targeted a WRC2 move since wrapping up his third straight ERC title last year, but an uncertain sponsorship situation

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Last year’s Rally GB winner Elfyn Evans feels the revamped route for Wales’ 2018 World Rally Championship round is a missed opportunity. The Welshman was critical of the organisers of the Deeside-based event for using what he feels are the wrong roads.

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Swedish outfit Mpart has started developing an electric Mitsubishi rally car built around R5 regulations, a prototype version of which the team hopes will be running in the autumn. The Mirage R5e is expected to be powered by two electric motors –

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Ott Tanak’s Rally Argentina-winning pace has left Toyota’s World Rally Championship rivals fearing being ’embarrassed’ by the Yaris, especially with engine upgrades due. Tanak dominated in Argentina last week, winning 10 of the first 12 full-length gravel stages to come from ninth

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. World Rally Championship organisers are mounting a new push to get privateers back in the series’ top class via modified current-specification World Rally Cars. A proposal to replace the 2017-specification cars’ 36mm turbo restrictor with a 34mm version for non-factory entrants was

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toyota team principal Tommi Makinen has ruled out making Ott Tanak a clear number one and imposing team orders in his World Rally Championship squad. Tanak’s dominant first WRC win for Toyota on Rally Argentina last weekend closed to him to within

Kalle Rovanpera was hospitalised for checks after crashing out of the Rally Argentina WRC2 lead at more than 100mph. The Skoda factory driver was leading his class and holding 10th overall when he crashed off the road on the second stage on Sunday morning. His Fabia R5 got out of shape on a fast left-right

A significantly different route for Rally GB 2018, Britain’s World Rally Championship round, is set to be revealed at the event launch in Llandudno on Monday. The rally’s main base will remain the Deeside service park, but the organisers have used road-closing powers to produce an itinerary they feel addressing points raised by WRC teams

Ott Tanak secured his first World Rally Championship victory since joining Toyota with a commanding Rally Argentina performance. Clipping a rock on Friday’s first stage sent Tanak into a spin and gave him steering damage, temporarily dropping him to ninth. But after that, he was unstoppable. He won 10 of the next 12 stages –

Ott Tanak will carry a 46.5-second lead into the final day of Rally Argentina despite a few worries about his Toyota on Saturday’s last stage. Tanak continued his streak of stage wins on the first two parts of the loop, but was only fourth quickest on the long Cuchilla Nevada stage. He briefly lost power

Ott Tanak took a step closer to his first World Rally Championship win with Toyota after extending his lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville on Rally Argentina’s Saturday opening loop. Estonian driver Tanak – formerly of M-Sport Ford – extended his streak of stage wins on a foggy loop of tests to six in a row

The only thing that can beat runaway Rally Argentina leader Ott Tanak is the weather according to the Toyota star’s nearest rival, Kris Meeke. Tanak won all but one of Friday’s gravel stages, only losing the opener after hitting a rock and damaging the steering on his Yaris WRC. Former Argentina winner Meeke, who is

Toyota’s Ott Tanak stormed into a 22.7-second Rally Argentina lead with a dominant performance on Friday afternoon. Having spent the morning charging from ninth to second following an early mistake, Tanak quickly deposed Andreas Mikkelsen from first place on the superspecial that preceded the lunchtime service. Tanak then went quickest on all three of the

Jari-Matti Latvala is hopeful he can return to Rally Argentina after his early exit from the opening day of this weekend’s World Rally Championship round. The Finn’s Toyota Yaris WRC will be inspected for engine damage following his retirement on Friday’s Amboy stage when running third and closing on the leaders. Latvala hit a rock

Andreas Mikkelsen moved into the Rally Argentina lead on Friday morning, but only by one second over a flying Ott Tanak. An impact with a rock on the day’s opening Las Bajadas stage caused Tanak to spin and left his Toyota with minor steering damage, leaving him running ninth. Despite the steering not being right

Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Andreas Mikkelsen is hoping Hyundai’s latest engine update will be enough to turn his fortunes around this season. The Norwegian, who came close to scoring his maiden win in an i20 Coupe WRC at last year’s season-closing Rally Australia, has struggled to replicate that form in 2018, with just one

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville leads Rally Argentina overnight following Thursday evening’s Villa Carlos Paz superspecial. Neuville’s time of 1m54.4s around the 1.1-mile mostly asphalt stage put him three tenths of a second clear of Ott Tanak’s Toyota in second place. For much of the evening the lead changed hands with every new car through the flying

Jari-Matti Latvala has ditched his World Rally Championship title challenge and will now focus on winning individual events in 2018. The Toyota driver made a good start to his new plan with the fastest time in Thursday’s shakedown stage for this weekend’s Rally Argentina. It is now 15 rallies since the Latvala’s last victory (Rally

Volkswagen’s Polo GTI R5 – the car with which it will return to the World Rally Championship in WRC2 – will not make its debut until Rally Spain in October. Autosport understands VW’s first R5 car was originally scheduled for a home WRC debut at Rally Germany, but the homologation date was put back as

Citroen driver Craig Breen says his attempts to avoid paying attention to the Tour of Corsica during his two-month World Rally Championship absence lasted “15 minutes”. This weekend in Argentina, Breen will compete in Citroen’s C3 WRC for the first time since finishing second on February’s Rally Sweden. He stepped down to make way for

Rally GB organisers have found agreement with the FIA on the route for Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship in October. The governing body was unhappy at the proposed use of a combined Great Orme and Llandudno all-asphalt stage for the final points-paying, live television powerstage on Sunday October 7. The FIA’s stance was

Chile’s hopes of hosting a round of the World Rally Championship took a step forward with a successful candidate event last weekend. The Concepcion-based RallyMobil ran without fault and was lauded by senior World Rally Championship officials attending what looks to have been a dress rehearsal for inclusion on the 2019 WRC calendar. WRC Promoter’s

Elfyn Evans’s co-driver Dan Barritt has been confirmed as fit to return to the World Rally Championship for next week’s Rally Argentina in the M-Sport Ford. Barritt was forced to skip the Tour de Corse earlier this month after he suffered concussion during the sixth-gear crash which ruled him and Evans out of Rally Mexico

There are concerns for the future of Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship after the FIA delayed its decision to give this year’s route a green light. The governing body is concerned about using the Great Orme/Llandudno stage as the bonus point-paying powerstage on the final day of the October event, and has refused

Mads Ostberg will rejoin Citroen’s World Rally Championship line-up for at least two more events, starting in Portugal next month. Ostberg, who scored his only WRC win to date in Portugal in 2012, was drafted back into the team for Rally Sweden in February and finished sixth. Since then, he has been working to secure

Future regulations concerning World Rally Cars will be discussed by the FIA and WRC stakeholders in Geneva on Tuesday, including the potential for the use of alternative energy sources. The WRC is just one season into its current five-year homologation cycle, but powerbrokers are keen to explore future technical regulations for the premier class of

Tuesday’s Wales Rally GB launch has been cancelled after the FIA refused to sign off on this year’s route. The organisers of Britain’s World Rally Championship round will now have to rethink the final day of the October event after the governing body declined a planned powerstage using the all-asphalt Great Orme test, which had