Round 5 of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship returned to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, for Rally Italia Sardegna, a rally where Hyundai has been strong in recent years.
Their driver Thierry Neuville posted the fastest time in his i20 Coupe WRC on the new 2.9km shakedown test, Loiri Porto San Paolo on Thursday morning, but the Belgian was unable to carry that speed into the opening leg of the rally of Friday morning.
After sitting out of the calendar last year due to COVID, Round 4 of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championships, the 54th Vodafone Rally de Portugal not only sees a return for one of the original legendary World Rallies but also sees the return to gravel rallying for the first of four full gravel events this year.
The opening leg of the rally proved a challenging one, with limited numbers of allocated tyres and a total of 122km over 8 stages there was no service, so making it back to the end of day service park in one piece was going to be important.
For the fourth stop on the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship tour, it’s a return to a European favourite, The Vodafone Rally De Portugal who has been hosting top-level rallying since 1973.
With its Porto base in the North of the country, Rally Portugal also sees a welcomed return to gravel rallying, some 221 days since the previous gravel event in Sardinia last year. Featuring 20 stages over 337km, rally Portugal will prove a tough one to predict a winner. From the past 5 World Rallies in Portugal, there has been 5 different winners and 5 different teams.
The final day of Rally Croatia, the third round of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championships produced a truly thrilling and an extremely close final battle. This brand new Asphalt rally was the first of the four full tarmac rounds this year and has certainly delivered a challenge for the Worlds best drivers.
Before the final days’ action had even begun out on the stages there was drama for the overnight rally leader, Sébastien Ogier. The seven-time World Champion was involved in a road traffic collision on the road section prior to the first stage of the day.
With another 8 stages over 121kms of competitive action, the second day of Rally Croatia was the longest leg of the event. Overnight rally leader Thierry Neuville had a far from ideal start to the mornings’ loop. Starting the day with a 7.7-second lead over Sébastien Ogier, the tyre strategy between teams would play a big part right from the off on that opening stage.
Making its debut into the FIA World Rally Championship this year and to the top level of rallying is newcomer Rally Croatia for round 3 of the Championships.
With its service park based in the capital city of Zagreb to the northwest of Croatia, this new Asphalt rally has already delivered an extremely challenging opening day for the worlds best rally drivers from the WRC, WRC-2, WRC-3, and Junior WRC.
Just two final stages covering approx 45km were all that remained on the final leg of the Arctic Rally Finland (Round 2 of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championships), and Estonian Ott Tanäk was on course to be written into the World Rally history books.
With an overnight temperature drop and some fresh snow, the conditions on the 28km Aittajärvi stage were ideal for this final high-speed blast on the snow and ice.
For the second round of the 2021 FIA World Rally Championships, we have ventured far North into the Arctic Circle for the first time in its 49 year history. The Rovaniemi based Arctic Rally event in the North of Finland has come to rescue in place of the fallen Swedish rally and has created much excitement amongst World Rally fans, despite being a non-spectator event, like Round 1 the Monte Carlo was.
Further challenges could face RedBull the FIA World Rally Championships promoter with further alterations to the 2021 Calendar.
Rumours surface that once again for the second consecutive year The Safari Rally Kenya may have to sit out from the FIA World Rally Championships.
Ypres is suggested to move back to its traditional late June date and perhaps an alternative reserve event, possibly The Acropolis Rally Greece could fill the August slot in the WRC schedule.
After an overnight haul down south to Monte Carlo, 50 of the 84 Competitors remained to start the final day of the 89th Monte Carlo Rally, the opening round of the FIA World Rally Championships 2021.
With just 54km over four stages to contend, it was a Toyota 1-2-3 led by 7 times World Champ Sébastien Ogier alongside Julien Ingrassia in the Co-Drivers seat heading into this final loop of action.
