Central European Rally 2024 Preview

We really are coming to the end of the end of the season and with just two rounds left, what happens during this weekend’s rally will likely decide the driver’s championship.

Following the last round in Chile the championship standings look like this.

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 11

1	T. Neuville	207
2	O. Tänak	178
3	S. Ogier	166
4	E. Evans	161
5	A. Fourmaux	140
6	K. Rovanpera	114
7	T. Katsuta	80
8	D. Sordo	44
9	S. Pajari	41
10	E. Lappi	33
11	A. Mikkelsen	29

 

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 11

1	Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team	482
2	Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team	465
3	M-Sport Ford World Rally Team	245

Let’s take a look at the stages and hear from the drivers.

This round features 302km’s over eighteen stages in the following countries Czechia, Germany and Austria.

Competition begins on Thursday with the 2.55km SS1 Velká Chuchle and the 11.78km SS2 Klatovy 1.

Friday’s stages are set to cover 110.64km of Czech roads and includes the longest test of the weekend: SS4/7 Strašín (26.69km).

123.46km of competitive running on Saturday forms the longest day of the event, featuring the innovative new SS10/13 Beyond Borders (24.33km) – crossing the lines between Germany and Austria.

Four stages make up the final day of action in Europe: SS15/17 Knaus Tabbert Am Hochwald (12.17km) and SS16/18 Passauer Land (14.87km).

Hyundai Motorsport

Thierry Neuville

“Last year we had a great victory at the very first Central European Rally. We know we usually perform well on tarmac, and winning in Germany was super cool for the whole team. Despite difficult conditions, we performed well. Because of the stage changes we need to do some video work, so we will be studying those as much as possible to get a good feel of the new areas. We will test at a small pre-event rally in Austria to have enough time to get back into a rhythm and also work on the car setup. The main goal is to manage our championship so we can take many points as possible. Of course, we would like to get that title in our pocket, but our first focus will be having a consistent run.”

Ott Tänak

“I personally enjoy the type of roads at Central European Rally the most of all tarmac rallies. Large sections of the roads will be new again this year, which should make it interesting. Last year road position was very important on the first day; because of the wet weather, the road was getting dirty quickly from every car that came through. The weather will certainly play a critical role this year as well. Austria and Germany are very similar to each other with roads in between fields and many junctions, but the Czech roads are usually in the forest with broken tarmac and many cuts. We will only find out during the recce what the roads look like this year. The manufacturers’ championship is in an interesting place, and we are going there with the target of scoring maximum points and putting pressure on our competitors.”

Andreas Mikkelsen

“I remember Central European Rally very well from last year, it’s the rally where we ended up clinching the WRC2 title. Overall, I would say it is a difficult rally because there’s so much gravel and mud being pulled out from the road. The conditions are very demanding; there’s a lot of cutting going on and very easy to make a mistake. I’m really looking forward to the rally because I will have a pretty different approach compared to Monte Carlo and Croatia. At that time, the car was still quite new for me so there were still things to get used to. I will have that new approach in Central European Rally, go there and give a good result to help the team maintain its lead in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships.”

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

“After a great team performance in Chile, it was nice to be back on the podium and now we want to get the most out of these last two asphalt rounds to end the season. We know that both Central Europe and Japan can be quite difficult rallies in terms of the weather and such events are a challenge as a driver to try and get right, especially with the added dimension of working with our route note crews. Our driving time on this surface is quite limited during the year, but at least the conditions we expect are not so different to Croatia. The car was working well there, so we’ve had a good base to work from while trying to find some improvements that can put us in a good place for the event.”

Sébastien Ogier

“Although I didn’t manage to score the result I was personally hoping for in Chile, I’m pleased we managed to make a perfect weekend as a team and come back much closer in the manufacturers’ championship, which was always my main target for this season. So we are really motivated now to push for the last two events on asphalt. In Central Europe, it’s nice to have another home rally for me, close to where I live now in Germany, and with a lot of fans watching the stages. From last year, we know that the conditions can be really challenging with very narrow roads, some quite dirty sections and very low grip. So we’ve been working to have a car that can give us maximum confidence for these tricky stages.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“I’m looking forward to being back in the car and driving on a totally different surface for the last two rallies of the year. I really like driving on asphalt, and I hope to find a good feeling and perform well. Central European Rally is a big challenge for everybody with a lot of surface changes and dirt on the road. Last year, the Friday on Czech roads was especially difficult with rain and a lot of cuts. With that experience it should be easier to return this year but there will still be many new stages, so we need to focus on making good pacenotes and communicating well with our route note crew. I will try to be patient, be there to score points for the team and if everything goes well, it will be easier for me to push at Rally Japan.”

Sami Pajari

“This will be my first time with the Rally1 car on asphalt and I’m sure it will be a big challenge. I did the rally in WRC2 last year and it was really tricky in places, with some more enjoyable parts as well. The stages are a bit different in each of the three countries, and at this time of year the weather can be quite unpredictable. But at the moment for myself it’s all about facing these challenges and learning from them. I think we did quite a solid job in Finland and Chile and I’m sure it will be a similar story on this rally too: when we’re feeling good, we can do some nice times, and if there’s more risk or tricky conditions, step back a little bit to gain the experience and not rush too much.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Adrien Fourmaux

“Central European Rally takes us back to Tarmac rallying for the first time in nearly six months! It’s nice to be driving on Tarmac again, and we had a good day’s testing last week. We know at this time of year the weather can be very wet and make the rally very complicated, with a lot of mud getting brought up from the cuts on the road.

“Last year Alex and I finished first in the RC2 class, which was a really good result. We want to do our best this year on this event to get back on the podium, so we’re going to do our best. We’re really pleased to be back in Europe but also back on Tarmac!”

Grégoire Munster

“Central Europe was the first Tarmac event I did in a Rally1 car, and the roads and weather conditions in this part of Europe suit me very well. So, I’m looking forward to this event! We had a really good pre-event test last week near the border of the Czech Republic and Austria, and it went very well in tricky conditions – so we are well prepared for the event!

“I like that we cross three countries during this event, it makes the roads very diverse and this way we can see so many fans from different areas of Europe, which is really nice.”

Jourdan Serderidis

“After a good result on Acropolis rally, I wanted to conclude the 2024 season with M-Sport and my teammates Adrien, Alex, Greg and Louis with a super nice challenge, and this Tarmac event in Central Europe definitely represents that! I hope to achieve a similar result to our Acropolis finish and have as much fun as we did there.”

WRC2 Category

Oliver Solberg

“I’m not going to lie to you,” said the 23-year-old. “That was a difficult one, probably one of the toughest of my career. We had really done everything we could, we were leading, but still it wasn’t enough to win it on the day. We might still win, depending what our rivals do in CER and Japan, but I think we deserved to do it in our own way.

 

“Nothing we can do about that now, we stay positive, and we look forwards. The best way to get over the disappointment of the last round is to get straight back in the car and back on the pace – that’s what we’re going to do in CER.

 

“I would like to say we’re going to be pushing for another win and that’s definitely the objective, but this one is tricky. We haven’t driven on Tarmac for so long – Monte Carlo in January was the last time. And we didn’t compete in CER last year, so we don’t know so much about the conditions. Let’s see what we can do.

 

“We know there will be a lot of fans out there and me and Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] love to see them all – and, of course, this is kind of a home round for Škoda, so we want to show how cool and quick the Fabia RS Rally2 really is!”

 

William Creighton

“This is a completely new rally for me, with 90% new stages for everyone else this year too. It looked like such a tricky rally last year and I am sure it will be similar this time, even if the weather is good. The Fiesta Rally2 will work well in these conditions, we’ve had some recent experience on Tarmac in the car, and I will be aiming for a strong rally to finish our WRC2 season with M-Sport on a high.”

 

Summary

Although Elfyn has already conceded this season’s championship, the Welshman who is fourth in the standings remains within 46 points of championship leader Thierry.  Now it would take a major upset for Thierry to lose his lead, but this is the world rally championship, and nothing is decided as yet.

The closest challengers to the Belgians are their teammates Ott and Martin who are just 29 points behind. A win for the 2019 world champions would keep them in the fight heading to Japan in November.

Also still in the fight is Seb and Vincent, 41 points from the leaders. We know that the former champion is quick on sealed surfaces. Let’s see what they can do this weekend!

Enjoy!