The 2011 World Rally Championship was the 39th season of the

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backs ...

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

in automobile racing. The season consisted of 13 rallies, beginning with

Rally Sweden The Rally Sweden ( sv, Svenska rallyt), formerly the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, ...

on 10 February and ended with

Wales Rally GB Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...

on 13 November.

Sébastien Loeb Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ...

claimed his eighth consecutive World Championship title at the Wales Rally of Great Britain when title rival

Mikko Hirvonen Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2 ...

retired on the first day with an engine that was too damaged to restart.

Changes

* The new technical regulations for the

World Rally Car A World Rally Car is a racing automobile built to the specific regulations set by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and designed for competition in the World Rally Championship (WRC). The cars were introduced in 1997 as a repl ...

became effective from 2011. The cars were based on the previous Super 2000 cars, fitted with a supplementary kit, which included turbo and rear-wing additions. The kit must be able to be fitted or removed within a defined time limit, to be determined. They will be powered by a 1600cc turbo engine instead of the previous 2000cc turbo unit. * The sporting regulations were amended to allow any tyre manufacturer to supply tyres. Regulations were implemented to control costs. The amended regulations were presented to the WMSC for a fax vote before 20 July 2010. * Michelin and British tyre firm

DMACK DMACK, the parent company of DMACK Holdings Ltd., is a Rovereto, Italy, based tyre manufacturer which started as a company based in Carlisle, United Kingdom. History DMACK was founded in 2008 by Dick Cormack to deliver smaller tyre sizes t ...

became the two tyre suppliers for the season, following Pirelli's contract coming to an end and their announcement as the official tyre supplier for

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

. * Additional championship points will be awarded to the top three crews on a televised stage on the final day of each rally, known as the "Power Stage". 3 points will be awarded to the stage winner, with 2 and 1 for second and third respectively.

Calendar

2011 10 01 10-50Rallye France, ES12, Mikko Hirvonen

The 2011 championship was contested over thirteen rounds in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, North America,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

. Following a fax vote by the members of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), the following calendar had been agreed for the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship.

Calendar changes

* Rally di Sardegna and

Rally Argentina The Rally Argentina ( es, Rally de Argentina) is an Argentine rally competition that has been a round of the World Rally Championship, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the South American Rally Championship and the Argentine Rally Championshi ...

returned to the WRC after one year in the

Intercontinental Rally Challenge The Intercontinental Rally Challenge was an FIA-sanctioned rallying series organised by SRW Events and Eurosport Events, and aimed to "give new opportunities to young or amateur rally drivers competing in recognised regional and international ral ...

, replacing Rally Bulgaria and

Rally Japan Rally Japan (ラリージャパン) is a rally competition held in Hokkaidō, Japan. The event made its debut in the FIA World Rally Championship during the 2004 season. From 2004 to 2007, the event was held on the twisty and narrow gravel roads ...

. *

Acropolis Rally The Acropolis Rally of Greece ( el, Ράλλυ Ακρόπολις) is a rally competition that is part of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The rally is held on very dusty, rough, rocky and fast mountain roads in mainland Greece, usually duri ...

replaced

Rally of Turkey The Rally of Turkey (also known as Anatolian Rally) is a rally competition on the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) schedule. History First international rally in Turkey was held in 1972, starting and finishing in Istanbul. In 1999, the idea of ...

after a sabbatical year. *

Rally Australia Rally Australia is an automobile rally event which was held in Coffs Harbour as the final leg of the World Rally Championship (WRC) until 2018. First run in 1988, the rally was held in and around Perth, Western Australia until 2006. It was par ...

replaced

Rally New Zealand The Rally New Zealand is an annual rally race in New Zealand. It was first included as a round of the World Rally Championship in 1977. The race is famous for its fast flowing gravel roads which carry the competitors through forests and alongside ...

and relocated for the second time in five years. After moving from

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Kingscliff Kingscliff is a coastal town just south of Tweed Heads in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, and is a beach community offering a variety of holiday accommodations. Together with the villages of Chinderah and Fingal, it i ...

on the east coast after the 2006 event, the event ran out of Coffs Harbour, to the south. The city has regularly hosted a round of the Australian Rally Championship for over a decade.

Teams and drivers

Driver changes

* After being promoted to the Citroën works team for the

2010 Rally Finland The 2010 Neste Oil Rally Finland was the 60th Rally Finland and the eighth round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over July 29–31, and is based in Jyväskylä, the capital of the Central Finland region. The rally ...

in place of

Dani Sordo Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland. Career Sordo began in motocross wh ...

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Ogier (born 17 December 1983) is a French rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC), who is teamed with the co-driver Julien Ingrassia. He has won the World Rally Drivers' Champion ...

signed a contract to drive for the team for the entire 2011 season, despite an offer from Ford. * 2009

champion

Kris Meeke Kris Meeke (born 2 July 1979) is a Northern Irish professional rally driver, best known for competing in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion. His co-driver is Seb Marshall, also B ...

will move to the World Rally Championship, joining debutants

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

in their

Prodrive Prodrive is a British motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and Team X44. Its advanced technolo ...

-run John Cooper Works WRC. He will be joined by

after the Spaniard lost his place at Citroën. * Peter van Merksteijn Jr. will compete for Van Merksteijn Motorsport with a

Citroën DS3 WRC The Citroën DS3 WRC is the World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing for use from the 2011 World Rally Championship season. It is based upon the Citroën DS3 road car, and replaced the highly successful Citroën ...

in 10 selected events, while his father Peter van Merksteijn Sr. will drive in 3. * Daniel Oliveira who previously competed in the

will compete with a

MINI John Cooper Works WRC The Mini John Cooper Works WRC is a World Rally Car debuted by the Mini WRC Team during the 2011 World Rally Championship season. It is the first rally car to bear the Mini label in top-level rallying since the 1960s. The car was entered in a lim ...

in selected events for the Brazil World Rally Team. *

Dennis Kuipers Dennis Kuipers (born 23 November 1985, in Almelo) is a Dutch rally driver. Career The son of businessman and part-time rally driver Rene Kuipers, Dennis began rallying in his home country in 2007. He made his debut in the World Rally Championship ...

, who raced in 2010 with a

Ford Fiesta S2000 The Ford Fiesta S2000 is a Super 2000 rally car built by M-Sport. It is based upon the Ford Fiesta road car. It made its racing debut at the 78th Rallye Monte Carlo in 2010, with factory team M-Sport and drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Julien Maur ...

run by

M-Sport M-Sport is an auto racing team and motorsport engineering company headquartered at Dovenby Hall near Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Formed in 1979 by the World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson, and originally known as ...

, will compete for the

FERM Power Tools World Rally Team FERM Power Tools World Rally Team is a Dutch rally team competing in the World Rally Championship. The team was formed in January 2011 for driver Dennis Kuipers's step up to the top level of rallying. The team is working in partnership with the Br ...

Team changes

returned to the World Rally Championship as a factory team for the first time since 1967. The manufacturer used the Mini John Cooper Works, to be run by Dave Richards'

team after Prodrive failed in their bid to join the and

grids. The John Cooper Works WRC will be run in a limited campaign of selected events for the 2011 season, with a view to taking part in the full World Championship from 2012.

SWRC entries

PWRC entries

WRC Academy entries

The WRC Academy used identical

Ford Fiesta R2 The Ford Fiesta Rally4 is a rally car developed and built by M-Sport to Group Rally4 regulations and designed for competition in the fourth tier of the Rally Pyramid. It is based upon the Ford Fiesta road car and is the updated version of the For ...

Results and standings

Results and statistics

Standings

Drivers' championship

Points are awarded to the top 10 classified finishers. *

secured the drivers' championship title in Wales. Notes: * ¹ ² ³ refers to the classification of the drivers on the 'Power Stage', where bonus points are awarded 3–2–1 for the fastest three drivers on the stage.

Co-drivers' championship

Manufacturers' championship

* Citroën secured the manufacturers' championship in Catalunya. * † –

ICE 1 Racing Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

was excluded from the manufacturers' championship after they failed to take part in

. As the team is considered to be a WRC entry (as opposed to a development entry, like the

Mini WRC Team The Prodrive WRC Team, formerly known as the Mini WRC Team was the name given to the World Rally Championship (WRC) team run by Prodrive. Prodrive developed the car, the Mini John Cooper Works WRC, in cooperation with MINI. Mini in rallying M ...

), it was obligated to take part in at least two rounds of the championship outside Europe. Driver Kimi Räikkönen had previously taken part in Rally Jordan, but had not competed in any further events outside Europe, and Rally Australia was the final flyaway round of the championship.

SWRC Drivers' championship

* † Frigyes Turán Excluded from Championship

PWRC Drivers' championship

* † Excluded from Championship

WRC Academy Drivers' championship

* Note: ¹ refers to the number of stages won, where a bonus point is awarded per stage win. * † Deducted 25 points

References

External links

Official website of the World Rally Championship

FIA World Rally Championship 2011
at ewrc-results.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2011 World Rally Championship Season

World Rally Championship seasons