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Rally Belgium, better known with it's traditional name Ypres Rally, is another long standing and famous European Rally Championship (ERC) event that got elevated to WRC status following Covid-19 pandemic.
Event has been dominated by local drivers but various WRC luminaries have both participated and won the event, ranging from Walter Rohrl, Henri Toivonen, Massimo Biasion to Jimmy McRae and Kris Meeke, just to name a few. Competed over twisting tarmac roads amongst farms with plenty of blind corners, nature of the event is one of the trickiest in the championship in that regard, explaining why locals are hard to beat.
With strong and experienced organiser, event is expected to run smoothly even with large entry list that has joined for 2021 event. For inaugural run in 2021, famous Spa racetrack featured strongly in final day but for 2022 it was dropped, instead itinerary ran entirely in regular roads.
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| 2021:
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Neuville, Thierry
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Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC
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114.22 km/h
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| 2022:
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Tanak, Ott
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Hyundai i20 N Rally1
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116.00 km/h
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Route runs along farm roads, narrow but flowing and thus very very fast. Here we see Thierry Neuville on a fast section. Late date means tractors have lately been visiting fields and deposited mud into roads. Unlike in most tarmac rallies, this hampers early runners a little.
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Here Adrien Fourmaux demonstrates how dirty corners get when drivers cut outside of tarmac. On sharper corners cuts are bigger and thus more dirt accumulates, hampering the later runners.
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Portion of the famous Spa race track featured in 2021 edition. Here Craig Breen negotiates hairpin after long straight and famous Eau Rouge corner.
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Driver wins
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Neuville, Thierry (1)
Tanak, Ott (1)
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Manufacturer wins
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Hyundai (2)
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