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hyundai 2018 rally australia
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wrc 2018 aus 101 xu6w
Geoffrey Harris14 Dec 2018
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Hyundai lures rallying's top gun Loeb

Citroen’s self-imposed loss is Hyundai’s big gain; and two Australian rounds in new-look Asia-Pacific Rally Championship

Without a contract with Citroen (or Peugeot) for the first time in 20 years, the world’s greatest rally driver, Sebastien Loeb, has been snapped up by Hyundai as it steps up its effort to win the World Rally Championship’s driver and manufacturer titles for the first time.

Loeb’s signing to drive six WRC events in each of the next two seasons has come at the expense of New Zealander Hayden Paddon, who was runner-up for the Korean manufacturer at Rally Australia less than a month ago.

Coinciding with these developments is a revamp of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, with Australia to host two rounds of it next year (near Launceston in Tasmania and Ballarat in Victoria) after it seemed the country would not be part of the series for the first time since 1987.

The APRC organisers have unveiled a radically different nine-round 2019 calendar, with competitors required to take part in at least two events in either of two separate cups (Pacific and Asia) to be eligible for the ‘grand final’ in India at the end of the season.

hyundai 2018 rally australia

Loeb’s first event with Hyundai will be the Monte Carlo Rally on January 24-27 – just days after his fourth attempt to win the marathon Dakar Rally in South America, this time as a privateer.

Loeb will do the Dakar, exclusively in Peru in 2019, in a Peugeot 3008DKR like that in which he finished runner-up in that torture test in 2017.

The nine-time consecutive world champion (2004-2012) and winner of 79 WRC events (most recently in Spain in October in his just his third rally of this year for Citroen) will turn 45 within a month of his debut with Hyundai.

Citroen has been intent on running only a two-car team next year as it tries to return to its glory days after generally lagging Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford this year – and Volkswagen the previous four seasons.

The French brand has lured the world champion of the past six seasons, Sebastien Ogier, back after his stints with VW and M-Sport, as well as young Finn, Esapekka Lappi.

hyundai 2018 rally australia

But Loeb was hungry for more after his success in Spain and, without the touring car and rallycross commitments he’s had with the PSA Group since retiring from full-time WRC competition in 2012, Hyundai opened its arms to him.

Doing just six rallies a year he’s unlikely to be a drivers’ championship contender, but he will strengthen Hyundai’s hand in the manufacturer championship and rob drivers with other makes of vital points.

Loeb joins Belgian Thierry Neuville (runner-up to Ogier this year after leading most of the season), Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen and Spanish part-timer Dani Sordo in the Hyundai squad, and takes along his long-time co-driver Daniel Elena.

“Winning at Rally Spain this season reignited my desire to continue competing at the very front of the WRC,” Loeb said.

“Joining Hyundai will give us a fresh challenge and one that I can’t wait to tackle.”

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While Neuville finished 18 points behind Ogier this year and 20 ahead of Toyota’s Estonian Ott Tanak, Hyundai also was second in the manufacturer championship behind Toyota (368-341 points) with M-Sport Ford third and Citroen a distant fourth.

Hyundai says it still is in “open dialogue” with Kiwi Paddon “to discuss options for his involvement with the team into next year”.However, there can be nothing more than a testing role available to the 31-year-old with the Korean manufacturer.

Toyota has retained Tanak, who won four events this year (including three in a row in the second half of the season), and Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, the winner of Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour. It also has signed Northern Irishman Kris Meeke, who was dropped by Citroen midyear after a string of crashes.

Paddon’s only potential opening is at M-Sport Ford, which has lost Ogier and not clarified its intentions regarding Welshman, Elfyn Evans.

Meanwhile, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) APRC working group president, Indian Vicky Chandhok, has called the new-look calendar for the Asia-Pacific series “a very radical change”.

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“These are exciting times with Indonesia coming back into the APRC and Australia adding their name to the list of events [after seeming to be out],” Chandok said.

Canberra and Queensland have long staged the Australian round of the APRC but Rally Queensland was cancelled this year and the Brindabella Motorsport Club found itself incurring unacceptable financial losses on the Canberra rallies the past two years, despite assistance from the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport this year.

The APRC will begin with two events in New Zealand, then Rally Tasmania in June, with the Eureka Rally in Victoria the sixth round two months later.

To win either the Pacific or Asia cups competitors will need to take part in at least three events.

While the first ‘grand final’ is set for India on November 29-December 1, APRC organisers say it will alternate through Asia and Pacific countries after next year.

Asia-Pacific Rally Championship 2019 calendar:
Otago Rally (New Zealand), April 12-14 (Pacific Cup round)
Whangarei Rally (New Zealand), May 3-5 (Pacific Cup)
Rally Tasmania (Australia), June 21-23 (Pacific Cup)
Rally of Medan (Indonesia), July 5-7 (Asia Cup round)
Rally of Johor (Malaysia), August 2-4 (Asia Cup)
Eureka Rally (Australia), August 23-25 (Pacific Cup)
Rally Hokkaido (Japan), September 20-22 (Asia Cup)
China Rally Longyou, October 25-27 (Asia Cup)
India Rally, November 29-December 1

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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