It's not often that teams have a complete new set of drivers for the start of a new season, but Toyota have announced their line up for 2020, and it is just that! Elfyn Evans, Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä pose with team boss Tommi Makinen, a very strong line up, will be interesting to see how Rovanperä (who only turned 19 last month) will perform, he could be a real surprise, he may also wreck a lot of cars!!
The teams have been pre season testing in the French Alaps in preparation for the Monte Carlo Rally. Rovanperä got his first taste of working with a full fat WRC team Ogier Evans
M-Sport were also testing, Gus Greensmith at the wheel, he will be joined by the two other M-Sport drivers for 2020, Teemu Suninen and Citroen refugee Esapekka Lappi
First full day of the Monte Carlo Rally today. Tanak's rally came to a very high speed end, the crew were lucky to walk away from this one!
When you have to use dry weather tyres, but you hit that small part of the stage where there is ice! Gus Greensmith came off worst, his theory of 'Keep your foot in' failed!
A few pics from the Monte The class of 2020 M-Sport's new recruit Lappi Tanak's huge crash Kalle Rovanperä must be the youngest driver in history to gain a ful WRC seat in a factory car, he is still only 19 Neuville Evans led for much of the rally (No British driver has won the Monte since Vic Elford in 1968) Ogier almost made it 7 Monte wins in a row A miserable rally for Loeb, he will be replaced by Craig Breen for Sweden Neuville was liteRally flying! A flawless rally from Neuville The first non French winner of the Monte Carlo Rally for many years, Neuville received the trophy from Prince Albert (Ogier doesn't like finishing second!) Final result: 1 Thierry Neuville Hyunda 3h10m57.6s 2 Sebastien Ogier Toyota +12.6s 3 Elfyn Evans Toyota +14.3s 4 Esapekka Lappi M-Sport Ford +3m09.0s 5 Kalle Rovanpera Toyota +4m17.2s 6 Sebastien Loeb Hyundai +5m04.7s 7 Takamoto Katsuta Toyota +11m27.9s 8 Teemu Suninen M-Sport Ford +13m30.4s 9 Eric Camilli Citroen +13m42.2s (WRC3 winner) 10 Mads Ostberg PH Sport Citroen +14m21.8s (WRC2 winner)
Time for a delayed WRC update. Unlike F1, WRC did manage to run 3 rounds before things came to a standstill earlier this year. Here are round 2 photos: Sweden, the classic winter rally..... Despite the unseasonal winter conditions, the organisers decided to go ahead with the event Evans went straight into the lead, no British driver has ever won the Swedish Rally THe Duke of Varmland, Sweden's Price Carl Philip was out for a demo run with Ogier Tanak desperately looking for some winter conditions! Breen had been drafted back into the Hyundai team What, no frozen lake? Kalle Rovanperä, showing there were some winter scenes to be found Evans dominated the rally, perhaps conditions were closer to Wales than Sweden! A historic moment for British rally fans, Evans is coming of age Final results: 1 E. EVANS Yaris WRC 1:11:43.1 2 O. TÄNAK i20 Coupe WRC 1:11:55.8 3 K. ROVANPERÄ Yaris WRC 1:12:03.3 4 S. OGIER Yaris WRC 1:12:06.7 5 E. LAPPI Fiesta WRC 1:12:15.5 6 T. NEUVILLE i20 Coupe WRC 1:12:16.9 7 C. BREEN i20 Coupe WRC 1:12:44.0 8 T. SUNINEN Fiesta WRC 1:13:07.6 9 T. KATSUTA Yaris WRC 1:13:42.7 10 J. HUTTUNEN NG i20 WRC3 1:15:46.1
Rally Mexico was run in March, just as lockdown was spreading round the world: Ironically, one of the sponsors was Corona! Ogier took his first win for Toyota, in the season which he says will be his last in the WRC 1 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Toyota 2h47m47.6s 2 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Hyundai 27.8s 3 Teemu Suninen, J.Lehtinen Ford 37.9s 4 Elfyn Evans, S.Martin Toyota 1m13.4s 5 Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen Toyota 2m20.5s 6 Pontus Tidemand, P.Barth Skoda 10m29.3s 7 Nikolay Gryazin, Y.Fedorov Hyundai 12m27.0s 8 Marco Bulacia Wilkinson, G.Bernacchini Citroen 13m37.5s 9 Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson Ford 13m56.5s 10 Ole-Christian Veiby, J.Andersson Hyundai 15m32.2
Fast forward 6 months to early September (International rallying had not seen an interuption like this since the fuel crisis of the early 1970s). Raly Estonia made its WRC debut, roads not dissimilar to Finland, in fact, just a small stretch of water separate the two countries. High speed smooth forest tracks with spectacular jumps. No doubt who the local favourite was, reigning world champion Ott Tänak Making a welcome return to the WRC was Ireland's Craig Breen The lengths the Irish will go to to convince us green is a lucky colour! It was a hard won home win 1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Hyundai 1h59m53.6s 2 Craig Breen, P.Nagle Hyundai 22.2s 3 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Toyota 26.9s 4 Elfyn Evans, S.Martin Toyota 41.9s 5 Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen Toyota 1m18.7s 6 Teemu Suninen, J.Lehtinen Ford 2m39.6s 7 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Ford 2m52.0s 8 Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson Ford 4m53.8s 9 Oliver Solberg, A.Johnston Volkswagen 7m38.6s 10 Mads Ostberg, T.Eriksen Citroen 8m17.3s
Round 5 - Turkey The hills of Marmaris A British driver was leading the championship for the first time since the days of McRae & Burns, Elfyn Evans is developing into a world class driver Result 1 Elfyn Evans, S.Martin Toyota 2h43m02.7s 2 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai 35.2s 3 Sebastien Loeb, D.Elena Hyundai 59.4s 4 Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen Toyota 2m35.9s 5 Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson Ford 4m08.3s 6 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Ford 5m36.2s Championshipo standings with just 3 rounds to go: Note that I say 3 rounds to go, the championship organisers have added another event. The Monza Rally is held around sections of the Monza circuit in Italy. It has been won 7 times previously by Moto GP star Valentino Rossi, will he be tempted to get himself in a WRC car and have another go? He says he busy that weekend, but not with Moto GP commitments, surely he has to be tempted. 1 Monte Carlo 23-26 January 2 Sweden 13-16 February 3 Mexico 12-15 March 4 Estonia 4-6 September 5 Turkey 18-20 September 6 Italia Sardegna 8-11 October 7 Belgium Ypres 19-22 November 8 Italy - Monza Rally 4-6 December
Round 6 - Sardinia Early leader was Teemu Suninen, thanks partly to the top runners sweeping the gravel roads clear ahead of him Someone who was definitely not feeling the same benefit as Suninen was champioship leader Evans, running first on the road Super-sub Dani Sordo, winner of last year's event was back, and hot on the pace It ended as a 3 way battle between Ogier and the Hyundai drivers Sordo and Neuville Pierre-Louis Loubet was trying a full WRC car, he is the son of former European Rally Champion Yves Loubet Final result 1 Dani Sordo, C.del Barrio Hyundai 2h41m37.5s 2 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai 5.1s 3 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Toyota 6.1s 4 Elfyn Evans, S.Martin Toyota 1m02.3s 5 Teemu Suninen, J.Lehtinen Ford 1m33.9s 6 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Hyundai 2m27.5s 7 Pierre-Louis Loubet, V.Landais Hyundai 4m43.8s Championship standings with just 2 rounds to go, both events are tarmac, so Evans will regain the advantage back of running first on the road, he is in with a real shot of the title. Ogier will have other ideas though, he will want to sign out on a high. 1 UK Elfyn Evans 111 2 France Sébastien Ogier 97 3 Belgium Thierry Neuville 87 4 Estonia Ott Tanak 83 5 Finland Kalle Rovanperä 70 6 Finland Teemu Suninen 44 7 Finland Esapekka Lappi 38 8 Spain Dani Sordo 26 9 Ireland Craig Breen 25 10 France Sébastien Loeb 24
Just been announced that the Belgian Ypres WRC round for 19-22 November has been cancelled due to Covid-19. Surely Elfyn has it in the bag now? 14 Point lead, just one round to go, he'll be running first on the road, which is an advantge on a tarmac rally. Rumours of Valentino Rossi and Robert Kubicia taking part in the final round at Monza. I see Monza as very likely to run, as it could be run behind closed doors. 1 Monte Carlo 23-26 January 2 Sweden 13-16 February 3 Mexico 12-15 March 4 Estonia 4-6 September 5 Turkey 18-20 September 6 Italia Sardegna 8-11 October 7 Italy - Monza Rally 4-6 December
Well, the final round in Italy did go ahead, as I predicted, Elfyn Evans would have a good advantage going into this event, with a 14 point lead and running first on the road, which on a tarmac rally is a bonus, as you can flick gravel onto the road suface by cutting the corners, thus slowing your rivals. Monza, a beautifully presented setting, some of the stages would be run on within the circuit itself, and others would be run in the nearby hills. .......Of course, the rally was to be held the first weekend in December, which threw a bit of a spanner in the works! Ogier sensed a chance to snatch the title from his team mate The conditions in the hills were more like Monte Carlo The old Monza banking, nice to see it still being used Former Nürburgring 24 hour winner Maro Engel was making a guest appearance with Skoda Skoda were out in force! It didn't work out for Evans No surprises, when the chips are down, it used to be Loeb who could always pull something out of the bag, that skill has been picked up by his fellow countryman Ogier, taking his 7th WRC title. He has also agreed to drive again in 2021, depite saying he was going to retire. Final positions: 1 Ogier (Toyota) 2h15m51s 2 Tänak (Hyundai) +13.9s 3 Sordo (Hyundai) +15.3s 4 Lappi (M-Sport Ford) +45.7s 5 Rovanperä (Toyota) +1m11.1s 6 Mikkelsen (Škoda) +3m56.2s 7 Solberg (Škoda) +4m12.1s 8 Huttunen (Hyundai) +5m15.4s 9 Østberg (Citroën) +5m27.4s 10 Tidemand (Škoda) +5m53s Final WRC drivers’ championship standings: 1 Ogier (Toyota) 122 2 Evans (Toyota) 114 3 Tänak (Hyundai) 105 4 Neuville (Hyundai) 87 5 Rovanperä (Toyota) 80 Final WRC manufacturers’ standings: 1 Hyundai 241 2 Toyota 236 3 M-Sport Ford 129
