FLAT OUT: WRC heads to Croatia as the championship heats up
18th April 2024Feature Image Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
The World Rally Championship heads back to Croatia, this weekend, for the fourth round of the 2024 championship as the title fight begins to heat up.
Enticing championship…
The driver’s championship is beginning to heat up between the two top teams. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe continue to lead the driver’s standings, reaping the rewards after he secured victory at the season opener in Monaco. The all-Belgian crew tops the championship with 67 points to their name.
However, it’s not all plain-sailing for the Belgian as he has a Welshman on his heels in the form of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans who occupies second place just six points behind the leading Hyundai.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux completes the top three, quite a distance behind, with 46 points under their belt. In turn, this means all three teams competing in the WRC have one car/driver occupying a position inside the top three.
In addition, the team’s standings are heating up between both Hyundai and Toyota. The latter holds onto the championship lead – narrowly – with a haul of 131 points collected.
Hyundai remain fairly close, in P2 of the team’s standings, with only four points (127 points) between them and the championship leaders.
M-Sport Ford complete the team championship in third – and last – with only 72 points collected between Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster.
One year on…
It has been a year, a year on Saturday to be exact since Ireland’s beloved rally driver Craig Breen prematurely lost his life. At the same time, it was this same exact event in which it occurred, following a pre-event shakedown in his Hyundai Rally1.
As a tribute to the WRC’s beloved Irishman, Hyundai is set to honour Breen once more by decorating their Hyundai i20 N Rally1 hybrids with the Irish tricolours. The Irish flag will be decorated on the roof and bumper of the Hyundai which will be piloted by Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and Andreas Mikkelsen.
On the one-year anniversary, Hyundai Motorsport President and Team Principal, Cyril Abiteboul said:
“It is of course emotional coming to this event following the loss of Craig one year ago, but we want to honour him on our return and have tried to do so through both our charitable efforts and the addition of the Irish flag on our car.
“For both championships, and for Craig, we want to finish as close to the top step as possible – a win would be a fitting end to the weekend.”
Hyundai are set to donate items to an auction, in Breen’s name, with all the proceeds going to the Craig Breen Foundation.
Itinerary…
The rally weekend will only consist of three days of non-stop action, from Friday to Sunday.
Eight special stages line up the weekend’s opening day, on Friday, starting just before 8:30am local time (7:30am BST). Across the morning and afternoon loops, Krašić – Sošice will stand as the longest stages of the day – and the weekend – at 23.3km.
Another eight stages line up Saturday’s action with an earlier start for the crews, compared to Friday, as the first car is due at SS9 (Smerovišće – Grdanjci) at 7:31am local time (6:31am BST).
Sunday, understandably, will be the shortest day of the weekend with only four stages lining up the day, completing the event’s 20 stages. Following Sunday’s action, it means the drivers, crews and cars will have tackled 283.28km of Croatian terrain.
Read more WRC here:
- Kalle Rovanpera secures win dominantly at the Safari Rally Kenya
- Rovanpera takes lead of Safari Rally Kenya with clean sweep
- Neuville takes early lead of 2024 Safari Rally Kenya
- Esapekka Lappi secures win in Rally Sweden
- Takamoto Katsuta off in snowbank during 2024 Rally Sweden
- Rally Sweden 2024: Rovanpera returns to the top on opening day
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
