When Andreas Mikkelsen came out and talked of his desire to dominate the WRC2 category – not, it’s worth noting, just to win the title, but to dominate proceedings – he painted a target on his back.
Lappi’s decision to go head-to-head with the best of the best in the sport’s second division was inspired. That was more of a reflection on the dearth of factory seats rather than a comment on his 2020 pace aboard the Fiesta WRC. When a disgruntled Esapekka Lappi said his goodbyes to the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team at the end of last season, plenty predicted it could be the end of the Finn’s time at the sport’s sharp end. Is he going to get it? There’s nothing in the bag or obviously on the horizon right now. Mistakes in Croatia and Sardinia cost him points, but his ability to bounce back from those two mistakes demonstrated maturity and ability beyond the obvious speed.ĭoes he deserve another shot at the big time? Yes. He did a solid job and showed himself to be the class of a quality field across the spread of the season. He lifted both WRC2 and ERC crowns – hence a rather splendid gold livery for the Rally Monza conclusion to the year – but Esapekka Lappi’s speed in Lapland and Portugal cast a small shadow and arguably cost him a Toyota seat next season. Ultimately, everything worked out for the likeable for Volkswagen Motorsport star. Mikkelsen had plenty of time to gather his thoughts when COVID-19 interrupted his efforts and benched him for Portugal. At times there were definitely questions raised about how full-on 2021 was for the Norwegian yes, seat time’s great for keeping you sharp, but there’s also plenty to be said for some downtime and a moment to gather one’s thoughts.
The combination of a WRC2 and European Rally Championship programme with Toksport Skoda meant Andreas Mikkelsen would be a busy, busy man through this season. Katsuta has taken all kinds of experience from 2021 and all of it will be enormously useful as he moves forward into next season. Three accidents in three rallies followed in what was a difficult period for the likeable Toyota junior. A heavy landing in Estonia injured co-driver Dan Barritt’s neck and forced them to stop.
Wrc 10 car list full#
The podium was definitely in his sights when he set out for to Africa.įrom then on, Katsuta’s first full season in the world championship went south for a long while.
A trio of sixth places opened his 2021 account and were followed by a brace of fourths. Not even Taka himself was ready for that sort of result.
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The Japanese driver was just 21.8 seconds off winning the Safari. Staying in Kenya, delivers the highlight of Katsuta’s season. Fourmaux has shown real progression and promise in his step from Rally2 to a World Rally Car – with his maiden WRC fastest time on the Safari Rally demonstrating both speed and a degree of cheekiness, coming as it did with a sizeable cut. The latter would sit 11 th were this a top 11 drivers.
Wrc 10 car list drivers#
He shares a seat with Sordo at Hyundai Motorsport in 2022 and being able to call on the vastly experienced Spaniard will be entirely valuable for the son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg.įour drivers could have sat at either ninth or tenth on this list: Takamoto Katsuta, the aforementioned Oliver Solberg, Dani Sordo and Adrien Fourmaux. Like so many of his contemporaries, Solberg has learned lots this season and it will be fascinating to see how he turns that knowledge to power next season. There then followed a run of rough form with accidents and incidents marring the mid-season, but he bounced back with a sensible seventh in Spain and that utterly assured fifth place in Monza. And this was no running order thing, they were competing in the same conditions with Solberg following the Frenchman into the stages. On paper, seventh might not sound like all that, but it was only a final-stage spin that robbed him of sixth and it’s worth remembering that, for much of day two, the then teenager was fighting tooth and nail with seven-time world champion Sébastien Ogier. The beginning of Oliver Solberg’s season was sublime and the end was right up there too, signing off on his first year as a Hyundai Motorsport driver in the World Rally Championship with fifth place at Rally Monza.īack to the beginning and seventh place at Arctic Rally Finland – his World Rally Car debut in the WRC – was a similarly special result.
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