China’s return tipped to be put on hold until 2018

China’s return to the World Rally Championship will be postponed until 2018, according to Motorsport News sources.

Rally China was scheduled to be back last month, but was cancelled due to weatherdamaged roads. The country was listed for potential inclusion on the 2017 calendar, but it is now widely expected to be shelved until 2018.

MN sources in China have once again questioned the reason for the cancellation of this year’s event. One source drove the entire route in the week it should have been run.

“In the entire route, I would say there were two places which would have caused a problem,” said the source.“one of those could have been fixed easily. This rally could have run with the roads as they were – that is beyond question.”

WRC Promoter said the decision to cancel lay with the local organiser.

There now appears little appetite for the proposed event based out of Huairou, just north of Beijing.

Citroen’s Yves Matton said the emphasis is on a sustainable rally.

“It seems,” he said, “very difficult to organise a rally in China, we are interested to have a rally in China – but what we want is a rally that is able to stay inside the championship, not a rally that is coming for just one year. For me, we don’t need to be in a hurry. It’s a question to have a good one for a long time.”