High-flying action this weekend
The World Rally Championship powers back with the Welsh forests — the venue for the next phase of an exciting title fight
WRC Rally Wales GB begins a three-rally run to the end of the championship in Australia with Toyota’s Ott Tanak (Estonia) holding a 17-point lead over defending champion Sebastien Ogier (France).
Ogier won the British event last year and revived his 2019 title fight with a finely judged victory for Citroen in Turkey last month while Tanak retired his Toyota Yaris with electrical woes.
The Welsh event is also critical to the hopes of Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville (Belgium) in the Driver’s title. Neuville trails Tanak by 30 points and needs to close that gap in Wales this weekend to have any realistic title hopes.
In recent years the British round of the championship has been a slightly different challenge, running in early October rather than its once traditional November date. Winter weather is still possible but the event has a much higher chance of being dry with less risk of the fog and muddy stages that characterised the later date.
Tanak’s title hopes will get support from his Toyota team-mates Kris Meeke (GB) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland), while Citroen continues its two-car programme with Ogier teamed with Esapekka Lappi (Finland).
Manufacturers’ Championship leader Hyundai has given Irish driver Craig Breen his second WRC outing in the i20 WRC, with Neuville and Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen also in action.
British fans get to see the return of Elfyn Evans who has missed the last three events recovering from a back injury he sustained at the nonchampionship Rally Estonia event. Evans’ teammates are Finn Teemu Suninen and Swedish driver Pontus Tidemand.
Kiwi attention is focused on Hayden Paddon’s return to the WRC, although he is competing in the WRC2 Pro category driving the newgeneration Ford Fiesta R5. It’s the first time Paddon has driven in the second tier of the WRC since 2013.
Paddon’s drive in the Fiesta R5 makes this weekend’s field one of the strongest line-ups of R5 talent ever seen at a WRC event.
WRC2 Pro Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera (Finland) and Czech driver Jan Kopecky lead the Skoda effort while Mads Ostberg drives a Citroen C3 R5 and Paddon’s WRC2 Pro teammate is Gus Greensmith (GB).
The wider WRC2 field includes three-times European champ Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Poland) in a Volkswagen Polo R5. He leads the WRC2 championship along with rivals Benito Guerra (Mexico) and Piere-Louis Loubet (France) in Skoda Fabias.
The WRC2 field also includes three members of the Solberg family — former world champ Petter and his son Oliver in Volkswagen Polos and brother Henning in a Skoda Fabia.
The pre-rally festivities have moved to the Liverpool waterfront this year and the first stage took place earlier this morning (NZ time) at the Oulton Park motor race circuit.
The central service park has moved to the coastal resort of Llandudno and the Friday route features nine stages. There are 118km of stages on Friday.
Saturday is a test of endurance and reliability with only a mid-way tyre change zone rather than a full
service as the rally tackles a double loop of three classic Welsh forest stages — Dyfi, Sweet Lamb-Hafren and Myherin. There’s a final sprint on the Colwyn Bay promenade to wrap up the Saturday action, which represents almost half the competitive distance with 152km of driving.
Two short forest stages and the scenic Great Orme tarmac stage at Llandudno provide 38km of rallying on Sunday, after which only the Spanish (October 24-27) and Australian (Nov 14-17) rallies remain.