Testing times for the WRC as season remains in limbo

Things are slowly returning to normal in the world of rallying. And although there won’t be a Rally Finland this year, the forests around Jyväskylä are already alive with the sound of cars.

Home team Toyota, as well as Hyundai, got the action under way again with a test to help their factory drivers blow away the cobwebs after more than three months of lockdown. And although the testing ban imposed by the FIA has been lifted since 1 June, nobody yet knows when exactly the cars will return to competition.

Just how rusty drivers can get when they’re not regularly competing was exemplified by Thierry Neuville, who managed to turn his car into a ball of scrap after tripping over a rock in a corner-cut. This was the second massive wreck for Hyundai, after Ott Tänak’s monster shunt on the Monte Carlo Rally back in January. With just three rallies completed, that’s quite an achievement.

But out came a new car and the test continued, with Neuville getting another chance on his 32nd birthday and Tänak also getting back up to speed – although the Estonian had kept his hand in by driving a Hyundai i20 R5 at home.

For Toyota, testing was logistically far simpler, because the team is based less than an hour down the road from Rally Finland’s most famous stages. All three of its drivers – Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and 19-year-old Kalle Rovanperä – were straight on the pace with no mishaps.

Ogier, the championship leader, looked particularly sharp. Perhaps the Frenchman’s relaxed demeanour was a sign that he had agreed to stay at Toyota for next year, despite having previously said that 2020 would be his final WRC campaign.