It’s unclear whether they have been attracted by Corsica’s stunning landscapes, the event’s long, challenging stages, its new-look format, or the island’s delicious food, but the Rallye de France has attracted 137 crews, making it the most popular WRC round since Finland 2001 (160). For the past 10 years, average entries for WRC events have been around the 60 or 70 mark.
Fresh from their title-clinching journey to Australia, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia are set to return to where they wrapped up the Junior World Rally Championship in 2008. They will face three former rivals of the day, namely Martin Prokop (JWRC winner in Corsica that year), Kevin Abbring and Pierre Campana.
Previous Tour de Corse winners on the list are Pascal Trojani (2009), Thierry Neuville (2011), Dani Sordo (2012), Bryan Bouffier (2013) and Stéphane Sarrazin (2014) who will all be in World Rally Cars.
Other WRC stars with previous knowledge of the island are Jari-Matti Latvala, Kris Meeke, Robert Kubica, Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikkelsen, but the experience will be new for Elfyn Evans, Ott Tanak, Stéphane Lefebvre and Hayden Paddon.
The WRC2 class accounts for 17 entries. The championship’s leading trio (Al-Attiyah, Protasov and Al-Kuwari) will be absent, which might give Esapekka Lappi a chance to get back into the fight. Much will also be expected of Camilli, Breen, Maurin and Tidemand.
The Rallye de France-Tour de Corse is a qualifying round for the JWRC (11 entries), WRC3 (12), European Clio R3T Trophy and R-GT Cup (Dumas, Delecour), plus the French Championship’s ‘GT+’ class.Another 56 entries have been received for the ’10,000 Virages’ rally reserved for prestige cars, which brings the total number of crews in action to almost 200.