Sébastien Ogier is the leader and great protagonist of the WRC in his 2021 season. The Gap driver has achieved four victories in the seven rallies held to date, putting him in a great position to reissue the title achieved in 2020. Elfyn Evans will try to avoid it, in an internal duel within Toyota in which Kalle Rovanperä also has things to say after recently winning the Estonian Rally. With everything, Hyundai’s threat at the Ypres Rally is very great, so Ogier will have to run with the premise of beating his teammates and rivals to leave the World Rally Championship seen for sentence.
Sébastien Ogier, winner on the asphalt of the Rally Croatia, will have in his favor the fact of opening the track in the first stage, as long as the rain does not appear: «I am excited to compete in the Ypres Rally, another new asphalt rally in the World Championship. It is a challenging test and I am looking forward to discovering its roads. We did a test in difficult conditions last week, so we did our best to be prepared. The grip is changeable and that is the main difficulty when looking for the limits. It’s nice to have a bit of a lead in the championship, but we have to stay focused.
Elfyn evans He is 37 points behind his teammate in the overall championship: «As with many drivers, I have not competed in the Ypres Rally before. It will be a new challenge and I don’t know what we can expect 100%. It will be nice to be racing on tarmac again, but it will be very different from what we had in Croatia. The roads can seem easy, because there are not many curves and there are long straights and junctions. However, there are many grip and surface changes, sections where a lot can be cut. I have not done as well as I would have liked in the last two rallies, so we are looking for a solid result in Belgium».
For his part, Kalle Rovanperä lands in the Ypres Rally after winning in Estonia and becoming the youngest driver to win a WRC rally: “It’s great to have the first victory and not have to wait any longer to get that result. However, It’s time to turn the page and look to the future. I’m really looking forward to Ypres. It’s a legendary event, even if I wasn’t in the WRC before. In our tests we could see that it won’t be easy at all, as there are many cuts where mud and dirt can be raised in the race. The conditions will be really demanding and changeable. The key is to understand the grip. “