MOTORSPORT NEWS Rally

BUMPER ENTRY FOR BELGIUM WRC DEBUT

Renties Ypres Rally Belgium (13 – 15 August) has attracted the biggest entry for an FIA World Rally Championship round in almost six years.

The three-day asphalt encounter, which marks Belgium’s first appearance as a WRC host, named 108 competitors on the entry list released today (Friday). That’s the most since Rallye de France – Tour de Corse in 2015 when 123 crews started.

Ten top-level World Rally Cars are listed, with manufacturers’ championship leader Toyota Gazoo Racing fielding its regular quartet of Yaris cars for Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta.

Former event winners Thierry Neuville and Craig Breen are listed alongside Ott Tänak for Hyundai Motorsport, while Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux replaces Teemu Suninen in a Ford Fiesta alongside Gus Greensmith. Pierre-Louis Loubet also wheels out a Hyundai i20.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sébastien Ogier will lead out in Belgium

Suninen steps back to a Fiesta Rally2 in WRC2, with Tom Kristensson driving a second car for M-Sport Ford. Nikolay Gryazin drives a Volkswagen Polo, while Jari Huttunen and Oliver Solberg debut Hyundai’s new i20 N Rally2.

Belgians dominate the 18-strong WRC3 list. France’s championship leader Yohan Rossel will be hunted by leading home drivers including national series leader Ghislain de Mevius, Kris Princen, Vincent Verschueren and Maxime Potty.

Six FIA Junior WRC contenders have entered – series leader Sami Pajari, Martins Sesks, Jon Armstrong, William Creighton, Robert Virves and Lauri Joona.

There are seven entries in the RGT category, comprising of spectacular Alpine A110 cars.

Source:wrc.com