WRC Round 3 - Rally Mexico Cars line up at the start in Mexico City Meeke was having a trouble free run, and controlling the lead Evans had a 5 minute penalty applied at the start of the rally for an engine change, without this, he would have finished 6th overall, ahead of both factory Toyotas, his performance was somewhat overlooked by the media Until now, Neuville had been the most unlucky driver of the season, but this time he was rewarded with a podium Ogier took 2nd Meeke took a comfortable lead into the final stage, nothing could stop him taking his career fourth WRC win, what could possibly go wro.... Luck of the Irish? Final results 1. K. MEEKE 3:22:04.6 2. S. OGIER 3:22:18.4 +13.8 3. T. NEUVILLE 3:23:04.3 +59.7 4. O. TANAK 3:24:22.9 +2:18.3 5. H. PADDON 3:25:37.5 +3:32.9 6. J. LATVALA 3:26:44.9 +4:40.3 7. J. HANNINEN 3:27:10.8 +5:06.2 8. D. SORDO 3:27:27.3 +5:22.7 9. E. EVANS 3:30:46.4 +8:41.8 10. P. TIDEMAND 3:32:56.5 +10:51.9
Breaking news - Ogier facing exclusion from Rally Mexico regarding an underweight gearbox https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/ogier-facing-rally-mexico-exclusion-882757/?s=1
The most famous spectator's car in motorsport right now! At least the owner got an apology from Kris Meeke, maybe he'll sell the damaged panels on ebay! Note - Never park your car on the outside of a fast corner during a rally!!
Last weekend saw the running of the 2017 Tour de Corse Meeke built up a handy 26 second lead during the first leg Engine failure for Meeke put Neuville in the lead Ogier chasing hard, but hit by mechanical issues Paddon Craig Breen, yet again coming out as top Citroen, but not chasing for the lead Latvala, no time to enjoy the view! Due to the mechanical gremlis, which hit all the Ford runners, Ogier had to push like hell on the last stage to stay in second Neuville took his first ever WRC victory, making it four different manufacturers, winning the first four rounds of this year's WRC Final result 1 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 3h22m53.4s 2 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 54.7s 3 Dani Sordo, M.Marti Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 56.0s 4 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 1m09.6s 5 Craig Breen, S.Martin Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 1m09.7s 6 Hayden Paddon, J.Kennard Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 2m16.3s 7 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Skoda Motorsport Skoda 8m10.7s 8 Teemu Suninen, M.Markkula M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 9m17.0s 9 Stephane Sarrazin, J-J.Renucci Sarrazin Motorsport Skoda 9m23.6s 10 Yohan Rossel, B.Fulcrand Citroen 12m57.1s 11 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 15m20.3s
The sometimes barren stages of Rally Argentina, the only round of the WRC that Monsieur Ogier has never won But it was Evans who soon took the lead, no fluke either, he was fastest on seven out of the first eight stages Paddon finally broke the Ford stranglehold on stage 9 Meeke was on the attack, he had already stated before the start that he was gong for the win on every remaining WRC round this year It didn't pay off!! Nueville on the pace as ever Latvala It all went down the last stage - Evans led Neuville by 0.6 sec Neuville won the rally by 0.7 seconds, the 3rd closest finish in WRC history Final result 1 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 3h38m10.6s 2 Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 0.7s 3 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 29.9s 4 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 1m24.7s 5 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 1m48.1s 6 Hayden Paddon, J.Kennard Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 7m42.7s 7 Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 11m16.9s 8 Dani Sordo, M.Marti Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 14m44.1s 9 Mads Ostberg, O.Floene M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 15m11.3s 10 Pontus Tidemand, J.Andersson Skoda Motorsport Skoda 17m32.1s
The end of May, and the WRC headed to Portugal Exactly 30 years ago, a young Spaniard started his first ever WRC event, the amazing thing was that he set fastest stage time on stage 1, there can't be many drivers who led their first ever WRC event (if any). Here is a photo from 1987 - Carlos Sainz & Antonio Boto The rest is history, but to mark the 30th anniversary of this event, Carlos took to the famous Fafe stage to celebrate! Reunited with long time co driver Luis Moya. On to the main event... They were flying in the Fafe stage... ...Not all were landing so well though! Ogier did it again, but only just, he's going to have to fight for this year's championship Final result: 1 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3h42m55.7s 2 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 15.6s 3 Dani Sordo, M.Marti Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 1m01.7s 4 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 1m30.2s 5 Craig Breen, S.Martin Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 1m57.4s 6 Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m10.6s 7 Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 3m48.9s 8 Mads Ostberg, O.Floene M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 5m29.7s 9 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 5m43.6s 10 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 8m13.3s
Round 8 of the 2017 WRC - Rally Poland SS1 - Fastest was Evans Unfortunately the popularity of rallying in Poland led to crowd problems, with at least one stage cancelled Neuville on the pace again Tanak was pushing hard... ...A little too hard Ultimately it was a Hyundai 1-2 Final Result 1 Thierry Neuville Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 2:40:46.1 0.0 26 2 Hayden Paddon Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 2:42:10.0 +1:23.9 18 3 Sébastien Ogier Ford Fiesta WRC 2:43:06.9 +2:20.8 19 4 Dani Sordo Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 2:43:33.5 +2:47.4 12 5 Stéphane Lefebvre Citroën C3 WRC 2:43:57.9 +3:11.8 12 6 Teemu Suninen Ford Fiesta WRC 2:44:02.9 +3:16.8 8 7 Mads Østberg Ford Fiesta WRC 2:44:25.7 +3:39.6 6 8 Elfyn Evans Ford Fiesta WRC 2:45:25.2 +4:39.1 4 9 Andreas Mikkelsen Citroën C3 WRC 2:45:29.6 +4:43.5 5 10 Juho Hänninen Toyota Yaris WRC 2:45:39.8 +4:53.7
Finland Teemu Suninen.... ....looking like something from Terinator Fascination WRC Evans was flying Finland has a new hero, Esapekka Lappi took his first WRC win 2017 Rally Finland - Final results 1. Esapekka Lappi FIN Toyota Yaris Gazoo Racing WRC 2h 29m 26.9s M 2. Elfyn Evans GB M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC 17 +36.0s 3. Juho Hanninen FIN Toyota Yaris Gazoo Racing WRC +36.3s M 4. Teemu Suninen FIN M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC 17 +1m 01.5s 5. Craig Breen IRE Citroen C3 Abu Dhabi WRC +1m 22.6s M 6. Thierry Neuville BEL Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +1m 33.1s M 7. Ott Tanak EST M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC 17 +1m 53.6s M 8. Kris Meeke NOR Citroen C3 Abu Dhabi WRC +3m 12.6s M 9. Dani Sordo ESP Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +4m 11.5s M 10. Mads Ostberg NOR M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC 17 +4m 21.2s
Rally Germany Ogier "Cut" More problems for Neuville, he seems to have a lot of bad luck with knocking the rear off the car! Citroen's new driver Mikkelsen came home in second Tanak's second WRC win, his first on sealed surface Results 1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 2h57m31.7s 2 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 16.4s 3 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 30.4s 4 Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 1m49.2s 5 Craig Breen, S.Martin Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 2m01.5s 6 Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 2m03.4s 7 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 3m58.2s 8 Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 4m32.4s 9 Armin Kremer, P.Winklhofer Ford 10m19.4s 10 Eric Camilli, B.Veillas M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 10m44.3s
Catalunya Meeke was back on it! As was Lappi!! A rare sight on the WRC nowadays, the Mini of Ukrainian Valeriy Gorban came home in 24th position Evans Meeke was back in the good books at Citroen, taking another win Final classification 1-Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Citroën C3 WRC), 3h01'21''1 2-Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC), + 28''0 3-Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC), + 33''0 4-Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC), + 54''1 5-Mads Østberg/Torstein Eriksen (Ford Fiesta WRC), + 2'26''2 6-Stéphane Lefebvre/Gabin Moreau (Citroën C3 WRC), + 2'43''0 7-Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC), + 4'37''4 8-Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta R5, 1r WRC2), + 8'22''7 9-Jan Kopecký/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5), + 8'54''5 10-Ole Christian Veiby/Stig Rune Skjaermoen (Skoda Fabia R5), + 9'04''8
With two more rounds of the championship remaining, this is what the points table looks like: 1 Sebastien Ogier 198 2 Ott Tanak 161 3 Thierry Neuville 160 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 123 5 Dani Sordo 94 6 Elfyn Evans 93 7 Juho Hanninen 71 8 Craig Breen 64 9 Kris Meeke 60 10 Hayden Paddon 55 11 Esapekka Lappi 49 12 Andreas Mikkelsen 39 13 Stephane Lefebvre 30 14 Teemu Suninen 29 15 Mads Ostberg 29
When someone tells you there is a driver starting a World Championship Rally who was born in the year 2000, does it make you feel old! Kalle Rovanperä is running in an M-Sport R5 Fiesta on Rally GB
Rally GB - Round 12 of 13 A lot of questions to be answered at the start of this year's Rally GB. Could Ogier win his 5th consecutive WRC title? Could Evans score his first ever WRC win? Could the non-factory team M-Sport take the manufacturers title? Answer - Yes. Neuville is always on the pace, surely a future world champion Evans took the lead on stage 2 Meeke was critical of Citroen for not testing in Wales prior to the rally Tanak will be switching to Toyota for 2018 Latvala Ogier held it together enough to take the title with one round spare The new local hero was Elfyn Evans, a dominant win A Special day, Elfyn Evans and and Dan Barritt, first British winners of Rally GB since Richard Burns & Robert Reid 17 years ago Final Result: 1 Elfyn Evans & Daniel Barritt M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta WRC WRC 2:57:00.6 2 Thierry Neuville & Nicolas Gilsoul Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC WRC 2:57:37.9 +37.3 23 3 Sébastien Ogier & Julien Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta WRC 2:57:45.8 +45.2 17 4 Andreas Mikkelsen & Anders Jæger Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 2:57:50.4 +49.8 13 5 Jari-Matti Latvala & Miikka Antilla Toyota Yaris WRC 2:57:50.9 +50.3 13 6 Ott Tänak & Martin Järveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta WRC 2:58:02.9 +1:02.3 8 7 Kris Meeke & Paul Nagle France Citroën C3 WRC 2:58:21.1 +1:20.5 10 8 Hayden Paddon & Sebastian Marshall Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 2:59:16.9 +2:16.3 4 9 Esapekka Lappi & Janne Ferm Toyota Yaris WRC 2:59:47.1 +2:46.5 2 10 Dani Sordo & Marc Martí Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 3:00:51.1 +3:50.5 1
With the championship wrapped up, the WRC headed to the final round in Australia. Latvala letting the dust demonstrate the aerodynamics Mikkelsen won in Australia one year ago, in what was VWs last WRC event, he was back fighting for the lead in the Hyundai this year Meeke Ogier did not have a good rally Tanak's last rally for M-Sport before he switched to Toyota for 2018 Mikkelsen ended up in trouble.... ....in fact, it was double trouble, with only one spare wheel, it was game over Neuville came through for another win, surely he has to be a favourite for next year's title Final mention to Australian Nathan Quinn, who managed to finish in an impressive 8th place overall, a rare occasion, a Lancer Evo in the top 10 of a WRC event Final result 1 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 2h35m44.8s 2 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 22.5s 3 Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 59.1s 4 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 2m27.7s 5 Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m05.6s 6 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 3m49.5s 7 Kris Meeke, P.Nagle Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 22m58.4s 8 Nathan Quinn, B.Searcy Mitsubishi 25m03.4s 9 Richie Dalton, J.Allen Skoda 25m39.6s 10 Dean Herridge, S.Hill Subaru 29m52.3s
Ogier has made the decision to stay with M-Sport for 2018. Malcolm Wilson looks pretty happy about it! Evans will take over as number 2 from Tanak. Ford are set to give increased support, although they have not yet said if it will be a full official manufacturer team. Overall good news.
