It seems like forever since the World Rally Championship teams were in action, but that all changes in Croatia this weekend.
Heading into the third round of the season, Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera leads the championship after a dominant performance in Sweden, but that was way back in late February.
Eight weeks later, teams are on dry tarmac for the first time this year, and another chapter will be written for the new breed of Rally1 hybrid cars.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville will start second on the road, thanks to his second place in the championship.
Sebastien Loeb (third) and Sebastien Ogier (fifth) will both be absent from Croatia, meaning fourth placed Gus Greensmith will start third on the road ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and his own Ford team-mate, Craig Breen.
The biggest storyline to follow this weekend is likely to be how the luckless Ott Tanak and the error prone Elfyn Evans fare.
Tanak, the 2019 World Champion, has had a miserable start to the year, retiring in Monte Carlo and in Sweden. His only points have come from a Power Stage win in Sweden, which means he’s still in 11th place overall, but 41 points from the lead.
For Evans, it’s even worse. The Toyota man has cost himself possible podium finishes in both rallies through silly errors and is in a lowly 13th place.
For both men, Croatia is crunch time if they wish to get their seasons back on track.
“For me it has not been the start to the year that we wanted by a long way and we need to look forward and focus on performing in the coming events,” Evans said.
“Croatia is not an easy rally but it was a good one for us last year and hopefully we can have a strong run again.”
Another man who needs a decent result is Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux, after destroying his Puma hybrid in Monte Carlo. He’s a driver in need of a real confidence boost.
“I’m looking forward to the event, and it marks the first time I’ve competed twice on the same event in a WRC car, so I’m pretty happy about that,” Fourmaux said.
Former Hyundai driver, Pierre-Louis Loubet, will also make his Ford debut in a Puma Rally1 car.
Along with the 11 Rally1 cars on the entry list, there is also a strong field of Rally2 entrants, headed by the former Citroen factory driver, Stephane Lefebvre. He heads a trio of Citroen C3s with Yohan Rossel and Eric Camilli starting behind him.
Reigning champion, Andreas Mikkelsen, will be absent in his Skoda, but Nikolay Gryazin and Kajetan Kajetanowicz will uphold team honours, while Jari Huttunen will drive the factory-backed Ford Fiesta Rally2. The Croatia Rally begins on Friday with a 20-stage itinerary that covers nearly 300km of competitive driving
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