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Croatia Rally has long history, tracing it's origins as far back as 1974. In addition, it has been run annually under one title or another, which is somewhat surprising achievement amongst the political and turbulent history of the region. For large part of it's long history, event has been fixed feature on European Rally Championship calendar and for 2021, it made step up to WRC. This step is expected to be for one-year only - due to Covid-19 ravaged WRC calendar.
Rally is held in hills near Croatian capital of Zagreb with roads that generally are on good condition and wide. Corner cutting quickly makes roads very dirty, handing a considerable advantage to those running early on the road. When stages were repeated, this advantage was nullified and in many occasions, average speeds were lower on the repeated run which clearly demonstrates the effect of clean road.
Organisation ran quite smoothly, no stages were cancelled and only interruptions were caused by accidents. Despite Corona epidemic, spectators were numerous and once stage was delayed because of this.
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| 2021:
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Ogier, Sebastien
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Toyota Yaris WRC
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105.14 km/h
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| 2022:
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Rovanpera, Kalle
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Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
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89.89 km/h
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| 2023:
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Evans, Elfyn
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Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
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105.76 km/h
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| 2024:
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Ogier, Sebastien
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Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
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105.97 km/h
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Roads were generally wide and winding, leading to high average speeds. Here Craig Breen tackles sharp bend after longish flat out section.
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Some parts were more on the narrow and twisty side, but as there were very few obstacles to prevent drivers from cutting the corners, organisers added artificial poles to curb this.
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Corner cutting brought large amounts of dirt, sand and outright gravel on the road, favouring the front runners. Adrien Fourmax demonstrates the tricky nature of the stage when it's really dirty.
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Driver wins
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Ogier, Sebastien (2)
Evans, Elfyn (1)
Rovanpera, Kalle (1)
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Manufacturer wins
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Toyota (4)
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