Inside Rally

The Sports Authority of Thailand and the organisers of the 2013 Race Of Champions have announced that the event cannot take place as planned on December 14-15 due to the current political situation in Bangkok.

Our thoughts are with the Thai people during this difficult period and we wish that a peaceful solution will soon be found. The Race Of Champions has been held all over the world for 25 consecutive years and we are currently looking at options of repeating the success of last year’s event in Bangkok on another date.

Fans who have already purchased tickets for this year’s Race Of Champions should contact Thai Ticket Major or their ticketing agent for further information on refunds.

November 28, 2013 – Hyundai Motorsport has today revealed that its current test driver Juho Hänninen will drive the second i20 WRC car at selected FIA World Rally Championship events in 2014, as team-mate to recently-announced lead driver Thierry Neuville.

32-year-old Hänninen has become well-acquainted with Hyundai Motorsport throughout 2013, having completed an impressive 3,500 testing kilometres at the helm of the i20 WRC this year. The Finn has played an integral role in the team’s preparations for its debut WRC season and will be another strong asset to Hyundai Motorsport in its debut season.

“I am very pleased to continue our working relationship with Juho,” commented Hyundai Motorsport Team Principal, Michel Nandan. “He was the first driver to sign for Hyundai Motorsport earlier this year and he was the one who completed the first ever runs in the Hyundai i20 WRC. He has shown great loyalty to our new team and it is fitting that he joins us at a number of specific events during our maiden WRC season.”

“Juho has done an outstanding job in testing this year. He has proven to be a very complete driver with a perfect mix of speed and technical abilities, as well as being a real team player giving valuable feedback to our team of engineers” continued Nandan. “He brings with him a vast experience of WRC and he has completed the most kilometres in the Hyundai i20 WRC this year so we feel he will be an ideal complement to Thierry.”

Hänninen will be joined in 2014 once again by his co-driver Tomi Tuominen and will make his WRC debut for Hyundai at February’s Rally Sweden, an event he knows very well. He made his WRC debut in Sweden in 2006, winning the Group N class, and finished sixth in this year’s event.

Hänninen has tasted success in a variety of different rally cars in his career and has been victorious in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the FIA European Rally Championship and the FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship since his World Rally debut. He has set a high standard in the S2000 category in recent years and took his first WRC stage win at Monte Carlo this year, underlining his potential at the pinnacle of international rallying.

“I am really honoured to have been chosen by Hyundai to be one of the drivers of the second i20 WRC car in 2014, including Rally Sweden, which is one of my favourites,” said Hänninen. “I have been working with the team a lot since May and it has been a really fantastic project to be involved in. All the people in the team are very nice and it has been friendly environment, but with everyone still giving 100% all the time. It’s been a pleasure to work with them in testing and I really respect the opportunity to drive some rallies for the team in 2014.”

Alongside his occasional appearances in the second Hyundai i20 WRC car next year, Hänninen will also continue to play a vital testing role as the team prepares for 2015.

Hyundai Motorsport has already revealed that a number of drivers will share the second i20 WRC throughout 2014. An announcement on who will be Thierry Neuville’s team-mate at Rallye Monte-Carlo will be made in due course.

A new colleague on his first day in the office! Welcome to My first Day at Hyundai Motorsport. Check out who it is…

Hyundai Motorsport

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Its been announced on their twitter page that Abu Dhabi Racing and Khalid Al Qassimi expects Citroën AbuDhabi Total World Rally Team to launch a big bid to win back the World Rally Championships manufacturers’ title in 2014. Abu Dhabi Racing & Qassimi, believes the 8-time champions will select 2 senior drivers who can challenge for the 2014 WRC title. But It does not give any indication to whom those drivers could be.

Photo: D.Darrall

Citroen Racing Team Principal, Yves Matton will, “make the right choice for the team. I’m confident that we’ll be much stronger next year. It was always going to be difficult season without Sébastien Loeb in No.1 spot – he had been such a dominant driver. This team won manufacturers’ title 8 years running. We can use experience, knowledge to mount bigger challenge next year.”

Both of Citroens drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Dani Sordo’s contracts are now up at the end of this season. Citroen have tried a few drivers in the hot seat. But neither have gone to plan. First with Kris Meeke in Finland who, despite crashing out of the event, impressed enough to warrant a second chance in Australia, when the team dropped works driver Dani Sordo for this one off opportunity, to gain back some manufacture points. But Meeke blew it by crashing out of the event, twice. With Boss Yves Matton saying, “This was not what I asked him to do”.

That put an end to plans of having Meeke compete in his home rally on Rally GB. Instead they put Ex F1 Star, Robert Kubica into the Citroen seat. However that too didn’t go to plan, as the Pole Crashed out on the opening stage of Friday morning. After returning under Rally2. He then also crashed out again on the 2nd stage of Saturday morning, putting an end to his run on the event. Citroen had even more bad luck when their lead driver Mikko Hirvonen rolled out of the rally on Friday. And with their only remaining driver, Dani Sordo out of the top 5 due to a  5 minute penalty before the event started, due to using his 9th chassis (drivers can only use a maximum of 8) It was a bad end to a tough season for the team.

As of yet, there is no word on who the two senior driver swill be. With rumours that Hirvonen could be moving back to M-Sport or possibly out of the WRC all together. And Sordo without any drive for next year. The options on Available driver who can fight for wins are very limited.
AbuDhabiRacing1 @khalidbinfaisal Twitter page does report that Al Qassimi will again contest selected WRC events next season with AbuDhabi Citroën World Rally Team..