Lappi to take Hänninen's seat at Skoda

Following the news about Juho Hänninen's switch to M-Sport and WRC, Skoda Motorsport has announced a deal with Esa-Pekka Lappi. After an incredible year of absolute dominance in a S2000 classified Ford in 2012, Lappi will take the next important step towards WRC in one of the most legendary and successful factory rally teams. Congratulations!

Hänninen contracts with M-Sport

Speculations about Juho Hänninen's position for next year have come to an end when the Finnish media released news about the M-Sport deal. This is a long-awaited dream and a huge opportunity to one of the most potential WRC champions Finland has ever "produced". Despite Loeb's decision to retire from full WRC participation, we can expect a thrilling year 2013 in WRC when new contracts are being signed and new players enter the game. So far Juho's contract includes 2 events starting from Monte Carlo, so this is the moment to show what this talent is about.

Kubica crashes at Rallye du Var

The final day off Rallye du Var ended in a tragedy for Robert Kubica who dominated the rally by a lead of over 5 minutes before crashing his Citroen C4 WRC. The car caught fire in the accident, but Robert himself and his co-driver were luckily able to stay uninjured. Over the last couple of years Kubica has been recovering from an almost fatal accident in F1. We hope to see less drama and more success for this amazingly fast talent from Poland.

Start list for Rallye du Var confirmed

Rallye du Var will be raced in France in the end of this week. This very popular and highly demanding rally is an interesting mix of old WRC A classified cars, S2000 cars and other less powerful setups which are under the existing classification. On top of the cream is a few Porsches in the GT classification – the same types we saw earlier this year in Rallye Sierra Morena in Spain. The start list includes some interesting names. Top drivers to be watched include Freddy Loix of Belgium (driving an A classified Peugeot 307), Graig Breen (Peugeot 207 S2000) and Robert Kubica (Citroen C4), the former F1 driver who just made it back to rallying by winning Rally di Como in Italy. In R3 the driver to be watched is Sebastien Chardonnet (Citroen DS3) – a young rising star from France.

Rally Catalunya a runner-up success

Last week's Rally Catalunya was a definite success for the runner-up drivers in WRC. Jarkko Nikara's first experience in a WRC car (Prodrive Mini) resulted in an amazing 5th place overall. Hitting the top5 and being able to finish under such demanding conditions reflects Nikara's absolute talent he's already become famous for in the PWRC and Finnish national series. There's much more we can expect from this young driver.

Another WRC entry was seen from Hans Weijs Jr who was very fast throughout the rally, but was finally not able to make it to the checkered flag. Hopefully Hans can be more consistent in the upcoming events, so that can se more great performances from this young Dutch talent.

As Loeb's career as a fully committed WRC driver is coming to an end, we can expect better performances from the potential runner-ups Tänak and Östberg, who both had really impressive moments in Rally Catalunya, Östberg leading the rally over the first day.

Nikara's first day @ WRC

Jarkko Nikara's first WRC experience in RACC Rally Spain is turning to be a success. Despite a puncture which resulted in 6 minutes of time loss on the first day, he was able to push fastest times among the Mini WRC drivers and to make a very satisfying overall performance.

Another chase for Mikkelsen

The hard conditions and rough roads of Cyprus have taken their toll from a number of top drivers in Rally Cyprus. The "golden boy" of VAG, Andreas Mikkelsen, who had trouble at the very start of the rally, has been flying through the stages of yesterday afternoon and the morning today, but is still nearly a minute behind of Nasser Al-Attiyah who has been controlling the rally since Mikkelsen's troubles on the starting stages. In PWRC, Jarkko Nikara suffered a puncture and fell down to 2nd place after Toshihiro Arai. The time gap between these too drivers is too long to be closed during the remaining stages, so we can expect that the competition for PWRC gold has frozen.

There's still hope for Mikkelsen but the gap of 49 seconds will be tough to close. Mikkelsen is among the fastest rising drivers in the circuit, but his performances could have been more consistent throughout the season. Still, it's amazing to see how much buzz there's been around this young Norwegian in media speculations. The fact is that, he has to improve his levels of consistency to be able to keep up with the competition with his Finnish and French rivals who will be chasing the seats in WRC for the coming seasons.

Footage from Bonnefis' test with a Peugeot 207 S2000

The French rising rally star Germain Bonnefis tested an S2000 classified Peugeot 207 last week. Brilliant footage from the test session is available here. Rally Talent is hoping that this young talent will get an opportunity to race in 2013 with a competitive setup against the international top drivers.

Flash start for Nikara in Rally Cyprus

Boosted by WRC tests with ProDive Mini earlier this week, Jarkko Nikara has taken a flying start for Rally Cyprus. Despite the significant power-disadvantage (driving a Subaru Impreza R4) to the other top drivers in this IRC series rally event, Nikara was 2nd overall after the two first stages.

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