Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais overcame everything that Rallye Monte Carlo could throw their way to claim a dominant 10^th victory at the famous event. He used every ounce of experience he’d gained over the years to conquer the treacherous route, his only moment over the entire weekend came when he clipped a pole in Thursday evening’s third stage. Flawless, in other words.

Their winning margin over their Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin was 18.5 seconds although the Welshman had to dig deep on Sunday as Hyundai’s new signing Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria closed to just four seconds in the fight for second overall.

Fourmaux started the day in third position overall but was quickly swept aside by a determined Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja in Sunday’s opening stage, not helped by the Frenchman’s slow time in the dark and icy stage.

Fourmaux struck back on stage 17, pummeling the Estonian’s time by 23.3 seconds on the penultimate test of the rally, demoting Tanak back to fourth. Tanak’s slow time put him into the clutches of Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen and sure enough, in the final Wolf Power Stage, Tanak was pushed back to fifth.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe had a torrid start to their title defense, clawing their way back to sixth place after three separate issues struck on Friday and Saturday while newbies Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy brought their Ford Puma home without a scratch on it to complete their Rally1 debut in seventh.

Toyota locked out the top three Super Sunday points paying positions with Fourmaux and Neuville taking the crumbs home this time out.

The opening stage of the day took care of Sami Pajari who skidded into a bridge and landed in a ravine, while  Takamoto Katsuta buried his GR Yaris into the undergrowth 1.8km into the stage.

Johan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand were untouchable in their Citroen C3 Rally2, taking a dominant win in WRC2, beating the non-points scoring Nikolay Gryazin by 1’13.9”. Eric Camilli took a last gasp second place in WRC2, beating out Leo Rossel in the final stage. It was the younger Rossel’s first rally in WRC2 and a first podium…

Read the full story in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.

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Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja completed Saturday’s six stages with a healthy 36 second lead over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin with just the super special stage still to run.

The championship leaders, Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe stormed through the field from 15^th overall to seventh to provisionally earn four of the six points they need to secure their and Hyundai’s first Driver’s and Co-Driver’s Championships.

Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais are currently in third, followed by Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria in the Ford Puma.

Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston are fifth after spinning in stage 12, dropping out of the podium fight.

Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka are sixth.

In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov are safe in the lead with Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen comfortable in a championship-winning second.

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Last week’s Rally Chile Bio Bío marked the 90th and final WRC start for co-driver Janne Ferm, signing off a career that saw him celebrate two victories, 15 podiums, and 77 stage wins.

With fellow Finn Esapekka Lappi over the past 15 years, Ferm’s journey began at home in Finland contesting national rallies in a humble Honda Civic Type-R before rising through the ranks together.

After claiming the WRC2 title with Škoda Motorsport in 2016, Ferm and Lappi made their breakthrough in 2017 when they joined Toyota Gazoo Racing for an eight-round WRC campaign.

Just four rallies in, they secured their maiden victory on home soil at Rally Finland, a highlight of their early years.

It wasn’t until Rally Sweden this year, an agonizing six years after their first victory that the pair returned to the top step of the podium.

“[Reitrement] was already on my mind since last year,” Ferm told WRC.com, “but when EP [Lappi] said that we could do a part-time season [in 2024], I said this would be okay. But now it’s time to move away.

“I love the sport and I love the people around it, but there is a lot of travelling that you are doing.

“It felt good that [we] are doing a part-time season. This year I have had the chance to be spectating on rallies and it has been a blast.

“It’s amazing to see the people doing absolutely incredible things with the cars, and I have been privileged to be sitting in one of the WRC cars and doing that. Now, I have a family, so I want to spend more time with them.

“Probably my biggest memory is when I met EP for the first time,” he continued.

“After that, we have been in the marriage for 15 years. Okay, the marriage is not ending, we are just, like they say, living under separate departments after this.

“You cannot regret anything. Life is too short for that.”

What this means for Lappi’s career, is unclear, but with Hyundai re-considering its strategy of running a shared third car, is this the end of the road for the likable Finn as well?

The post Janne Ferm hangs up his helmet with WRC retirement appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja took the lead of Rally Chile BioBío after stage five, bumping Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin down to second place after the Welshman lead the 11^th round of the FIA World Rally Championship up until the first stage after the midday service. The Estonian ended the opening day a mere 0.4 seconds ahead of Evans who fought back over the final stage.

As the top drivers settled into the day’s remaining five stages after SS1 was cancelled, Evans laid down his marker, firing off a stage winning time that saw the Toyota Gazoo racing driver shade his teammate Sebastian Ogier/Vincent Landais by 6.6 seconds.

The slippery roads claimed their first victim in stage three when Ogier made a slight mistake running wide into a bank which punctured a tyre at km 4.4. The time loss changing the tyre saw the eight time champion plummet from the lead to 15^th overall.

The same stage saw the end of Martins Sesks and Renars Francis who also went wide in their M-Sport Puma Rally1 and picked up two punctures after hitting a bank and with only one spare wheel, they couldn’t get back to the service park which was 130km away and were forced to retire for the day.

Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm also picked up a puncture in the same stage, even though they never hit anything unlike their rivals.

After the morning loop of three stages, Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen were in third place in the fourth (non-points scoring) GR Yaris Rally1, a brilliant effort from the 22-year-old Finn.

Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen ended the day in third place, 2.2 seconds up on Pajari in fourth, in turn 1.4 seconds ahead of Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka in their M-Sport Ford Puma, a brilliant effort from the Luxembourger.

The second Puma of Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria would have been one second off the lead but for a one minute penalty for arriving late for stage five after stopping in the open section to change an alternator belt. In the process he damaged a pipe which he also had to repair. He stormed through the stage 0.2 seconds behind the scratch time off Ogier’s time.

The Ford driver wrung the Puma’s neck in the day’s final stage, taking the win by 1.8 seconds from Ogier.

Championship leader Thierry Neuville/Martin Wydaeghe brought their Hyundai i20 N home in sixth after opening the road all day, as he has done on every event since leading the title chase back in Monte Carlo.

Lappi ended the day in seventh ahead of a frustrated Fourmaux with Ogier having dragged himself back into the points in ninth, in spite of running without hybrid power in the final stage.

Nikolay Gryazin leads WRC2 after oh-so-nearly rolling his Citroen C3 in the final stage. 10.2 seconds behind is the champion elect Oliver Solberg in his Skoda Fabia RS with Yohan Rossel breathing down his neck 1.2 seconds away in third.

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Seven stages and 124km awaited the crews on the second full day of rallying. The first stage was red-flagged once again as a result of badly behaved spectators but got underway after a 15 minute break.

Fourmaux stormed through the stage with the fastest time until Rovanpera got the bit between his teeth, pipping the Frenchman by 3.5 seconds and Evans by 0.9 seconds and crucially, Mikkelsen by 1.3 seconds, leaving the Norwegian in the lead by a scant half a second.

Evans remained in third 1.1 seconds off the lead with Fourmaux in fourth starting to build  a cushion over Sesks. Neuville in seventh was pressuring Munster while Katsuta remained mired in eighth.

Tanak was back in action and set the fifth fastest stage time but was ranked 14^th overall.

Stage ten was crucial – Mikkelsen dropped 5.1 seconds to Rovanpera and dropped to third overall behind Evans who shadowed the double champion’s every move.

Neuville – who started the day with a target of reaching fifth overall – passed Munster for sixth before the final stage of the morning loop.

Stage 11 was also delayed due to spectator control. Controlling spectators was an issue the last time the WRC visited Poland back in 2017 which resulted in the event dropping off the calendar. Poland’s return to the calendar this year is a one-off and given the stage cancellations and delays, it’s unlikely to be included going forward.

Once it got underway, the three-way fight for the lead intensified yet again. Rovanpera, not happy with his pace but doing an astounding job given his lack of preparation, was only third fastest but held on to the lead by one tenth from teammate Evans. Mikkelsen won the stage making it only 2.2 seconds between the top three.

Fourmaux was still in scintillating form, holding fourth adding another handful of seconds over Sesks. Neuville only shaved 0.1 seconds to Sesks in his quest to take fifth.

18.7km into the stage Kajetan Kajetanowicz reared onto two wheels and ran wide, collecting a couple of very large rocks which wrecked his Skoda’s front left suspension.

Pajari had a comfortable half a minute lead in WRC2 over Robert Virves in a Skoda.

Nothing changed during the SuperSpecial stage run before service although Tanak called it a day, unhappy with his engine and with no Saturday points available elected to head back to service to refresh his i20 N ahead of Super Sunday.

Unlucky stage 13 was next – unlucky for Evans who suffered a delaminated tyre and lost 8.9 seconds to his super-sub teammate and dropped to third overall behind Mikkelsen, 6.5 seconds adrift of the Norwegian.

In WRC2, Oliver Solberg, who was hopelessly frustrated with his Skoda on day one, seventh and 33 seconds off Pajari’s time, was flying, and closed to 2.5 seconds off Virves.

The second last stage of the day saw Rovanpera open his lead to 5.2 seconds while Evans had to do damage control, having used up his sole spare tyre. Evans was 13.3 seconds off the lead and 8.1 behind his Hyundai rival.

Fourmaux was safe(ish) in fourth, some 20 seconds ahead of Sesks who was under huge pressure from Neuville, lurking 2.4 seconds back, while Solberg edged closer to Virves in WRC2.

The final stage of the day saw Neuville throw everything at the stage which led to a small mistake which the Belgian reckons cost him a second. That second, though, was important, for Sesks also gave his all and retained fifth overall by 0.1 second!

Rovanpera flew through the final stage 6.5 seconds quicker than all comers after a phenomenal performance. Evans pipped Mikkelsen but had to  settle for third place Saturday points. Fourmaux took fourth from Sesks, Neuville, Munster and Katsuta.

Sami Pajari was in total control in WRC2 but Solberg, who’d driven his car on its door mirrors all day, was up into second, 26 seconds adrift of the flying Toyota pair.

The post Rovanpera romps into WRC Poland lead appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Hybrid Rally1 cars will continue in the World Rally Championship until the end of 2026, the FIA has confirmed following Tuesday’s World Motor Sport Council.

It was widely expected that the FIA would make a U-turn on its February proposal to phase out Rally1 cars in their current guise, a decision ratified on Tuesday’s WMSC meeting

The proposal made earlier this year by the FIA’s working group centred on the removal of the Rally1 car’s  hybrid power as early as next year as part of a plan to close the performance gap to Rally2 cars with a modified rear wing and a smaller air restrictor.

A proposal was added for manufacturers to produce an optional upgrade kit for Rally2 cars to increase their performance to allow some competitors to battle at the sharp end of rallies.

It was hoped this could increase entries and provide a smooth transition to all-new technical regulations in 2027.

Changes to Rally1 and Rally2 were strongly opposed by teams and manufacturers which resulted in a letter being penned to the FIA in April requesting for the current rules to remain in place.

The key concerns among the teams centred around the short timeframe to redesign, test and validate changes to cars for next season as well as substantial  investments that have already been made in the current cars which was expected to be amortised across a five-year homologation cycle.

“Technical stability has been agreed between all stakeholders for the 2025 and 2026 FIA World Rally Championship seasons. The World Council has confirmed that, following extensive feedback and discussions, the WRC Technical Regulations for Rally1/2 cars will remain unchanged for the coming two years,” read a statement from the FIA.

“All stakeholders are working positively together on the direction of the regulations for 2027 and beyond, and there is a good consensus between the World Council members and the manufacturers on the key targets that are aimed primarily at increasing participation at the highest level as previously set out by the FIA.

“It is a strong expectation of the World Council that the current manufacturers will commit to the long-term future of the sport well in advance. These regulations will be presented for approval at the December meeting of the World Council, allowing more than two year’s lead time for manufacturers to adapt.

“Following a clear pledge to invest from the WRC Promoter, the FIA will strengthen its team across the Commercial and Communications Departments to extend their support for the Promoter and the key stakeholders around the Promotional Working Group.

“There will be a strong focus on managing the sporting regulations following the creation of the WRC Sporting Working Group, with a key emphasis on increasing the opportunities for media activation and reducing the costs for its competitors. The final versions of these Sporting Regulations are to be proposed in the October session of the WMSC.”

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem added: “The WRC is hugely important to the FIA, it is the pinnacle of the rally discipline and I have had a lot of conversations with the manufacturers over the past weeks about its future direction.

“It is clear now that we all need to have technical stability for the next two years, but at the same time it is important for the FIA that, in providing this stability, we receive the same positive commitment from the manufacturers.”

The reaction to the decision has been positive from both the WRC Promoter and teams with the former describing the move as a “hugely important moment”.

“As the WRC Promoter this is a hugely important moment for us, as we can move forward with unity and consistency over the next two years from a technical perspective while we are investing heavily in new and exciting ways to grow the fanbase of the sport and deliver for our fans, said WRC Promoter Managing Director Jona Siebel.

It is a move that Toyota believes will save teams money and allow more time to focus on the 2027 regulations.

“It is very good news because if we think about this cycle the investment which have been made it makes sense to run through a cycle which is normally five years,” said Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala. “If we had done changes now we would have needed to do a big investment so it is very clever choice to do and concentrate on stability and then do the new regulations for 2027.”

Hyundai has been most affected by the upheaval having to abandon plans to deliver a whole new car for 2025 under the current rules due to the uncertainty.

“We have worked very closely together with the FIA over the past months and while we all believe that stability of the technical regulations for 2025 and 2026 is the right thing, the very substantial steps made on the governance will provide for a more unified and positive approach towards the short term improvements and long term breakthroughs that we all agree the sport needs,” said team principal Cyril Abiteboul.

While pleased by a vote for stability in regulations, M-Sport Ford boss Malcolm Wilson says that is now time for proposals to improve the championship’s promotion to be enacted.

“This is a really positive step for us in the coming years,” said Wilson. “We have seen some good proposals on the promotion side, on the marketing side and the plans for event operations and now the work to make those things happen needs to start, and with a consistent proposition on the technical side, I think the scope is there to achieve our ambitious targets for the WRC.”

The FIA also confirmed plans to extend its exclusive Junior WRC car supply contract with M-Sport Poland for the Ford Fiesta Rally3 EVO for 2025.

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In a final twist of fate, Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveloja won WRC Rally Italia Sardegna by 0.2 seconds after long time rally leader Sebastian Ogier picked up a puncture with a couple of kilometres of the Wolf Power Stage remaining.

Ogier held a 6.2 second lead before the fateful 7.1km final stage.

“Puncture. Not much I can do. It’s not rally, it’s like cross-country. Not much I can do. That’s life, I think we deserved more than that but at least but at least Ott has done a good rally as well,” said the phlegmatic Ogier.

Dani Sordo took the final podium position giving Hyundai a 1-3 leaving Toyota with a two-four.

Tanak is now level with Evans in second place on the championship points table.

A full report will be in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.

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Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais reeled off the remaining four stages on Sunday to take the Frenchman’s tally to six of the famous gravel Rally de Portugal and his career tally to 60 WRC victories.

Starting the day with an 11.9 second lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja, Ogier quickly gapped another 6.2 seconds on the day’s opening stage, allowing the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver to control the pace in the early morning foggy stages.

Tänak threw caution to the wind in Fafe 1, clawing back 4.5 seconds and another 3.5 seconds in the penultimate stage, but with just 11km left, Ogier had it in the bag barring any unforeseen last minute moments.

The Wolf Power Stage was the scene for the final showdown which was won by Thierry Neuville/Martin Wydaeghe, just 0.1 seconds ahead Tänak.

Tänak took the Super Sunday spoils and the seven points that go with it and while Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin still hold second in the standings, the heat has been turned up as the Estonian is only seven points adrift.

Neuville’s third place podium finish opens up the gap in the championship standings over Evans – who was six points adrift heading to the Iberian Peninsula to 24.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria continued their fine form, snatching fourth place in the day’s first stage, powering their M-Sport Ford Puma through the fog with confidence, something lacking in Dani Sordo with limited visibility.

Evans was a lackluster sixth after myriad problems including Scott Martin mislaying his pace notes, a puncture and an overheating engine.

Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov was the first WRC2 car home but he had not nominated the event for Driver’s Championship points.

Taking a maiden WRC2 win – and a first for Toyota’s GR Yaris WRC2 machine, was a delighted Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuan who pipped the Irish pair of Joshua Mcerlean/James Fulten’s Skoda Fabia RS, which was also the Irishman’s first WRC2 podium as was third placed Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi in another Fabia RS.

The post Ogier sets another new record with his 6th Rally de Portugal victory appeared first on Motorsport Week.

The thrilling three-way fight continued into Saturday where the team faced another eight stages and 108km of hard tarmac racing.

With rain forecast, tyre strategy would prove a key topic: all cars in the top category took wet tyres as part of their package for the morning, although the weather would ultimately stay dry through the first loop.

After a day of many twists and turns – literally and metaphorically – Hyundai i20 N star Neuville held a 4.9sec advantage over Toyota rival Elfyn Evans, provisionally scoring 18 points to boost his championship charge against the Welshman. Eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier made it two GR Yaris cars inside the top three, ending within 11.6sec of the top spot.

The morning swung in Neuville’s favour thanks to his efforts in preserving his four soft compound Pirelli P Zero tyres. Evans, who had ended Friday tied with the Belgian, dropped 4.7sec across the loop as he struggled to juggle only three softs, two wets and one hard tyre in the absence of forecasted rain.

All three Toyota crews opted to carry four soft and two wet tyres for the repeated afternoon loop while Neuville chose a more diverse package comprising two hards, two softs and two wets.

Neuville’s Saturday standing will earn him 18 points, providing he completes Super Sunday. Evans will receive 15 while Ogier gets 13.

“It’s not a big lead, but we had a great day,” smiled the leader. “Despite a not perfect tyre choice this afternoon we were capable of defending our lead. We need to continue attacking and have a good tyre choice [on Sunday]. It wasn’t easy when the weather wasn’t very easy to judge.”

Evans said: “It’s been a good day and good fun behind the wheel. The margins have been very tight here and we just couldn’t quite match Thierry, who was very fast all day. We had a good start to the afternoon to take the lead – we had the right tyre choice for that stage especially. After that, I think it’s hard to say what the best choice was, as the feeling was pretty good in the car. We just unfortunately fell short at the end of the day. There will be another difficult tyre choice to make to cover the whole final day but we’ll try to make good decisions and give it our best.”

Ott Tänak was fourth, more than a minute further back in another i20. The Estonian was lucky to escape with nothing more than slightly a bent rear wheel when he ran wide on a left-hander and clipped a kerb.

Tänak had 19.9sec in hand over Adrien Fourmaux’s Ford Puma in fifth. Fourmaux was again impressive in his M-Sport machine, taking the fastest time at Smerovišće – Grdanjci to stretch his advantage over Toyota’s third driver Takamoto Katsuta.

Seventh-placed Andreas Mikkelsen suffered another time-consuming overshoot but felt increasingly comfortable aboard his Hyundai by the day’s finish. Grégoire Munster gained more valuable experience in his Puma to end the day eighth while WRC2 stars Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel completed the leaderboard.

Four more stages lie in wait in Sunday’s finale, with up to 12 championship points still up for grabs. They total 54.78km before the finish in Croatian capital Zagreb.

The post Thrilling three-way fight in Croatia appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Sébastien Ogier announced his return to FIA World Rally Championship action by winning Thursday morning’s Croatia Rally shakedown.

Eight-time WRC champion Sébastien Ogier is back in action for the first time since the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo in January but wasted no time in getting back up to speed on the dry roads east of the capital city Zagreb.

The Frenchman was third-quickest on his first attempt at the 3.65km Okić test but shaved almost four seconds off his time to top the leaderboard on his second and penultimate run. His GR Yaris Rally1 team-mate Elfyn Evans was 0.7sec behind while Hyundai i20 N pair Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak set identical pace in third and fourth.

Ogier won the inaugural Croatia Rally in 2021, and his Toyota Gazoo Racing team has celebrated victory in every edition of the Balkan event.

“It is good to be back,” he said. “Two and a half months [away] is a very long time, but the [pre-event] test last week was useful, and I feel very happy here.” M-Sport Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux is targeting his third consecutive WRC podium and started the rally strongly, placing his Puma Rally1 just 2.5sec back from the leading pace in fifth. Behind him was Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen, while Takamoto Katsuta and Grégoire Munster finished seventh and eighth respectively.

Just three-tenths of a second split Citroën’s WRC2 teammates Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel, who rounded out the top 10 in their identical C3 Rally2 cars.

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