Didier Auriol, first French WRC champion, celebrates his 66th birthday!

Happy birthday, Didier Auriol! The Montpellier is celebrating his 66th birthday on August 18, 2024. The first French world rally champion, he left his mark on the championship WRC with 20 victories in 152 starts.

Above all, it is the 1994 season which will remain as Didier Auriol's masterpiece, with the title won in the company of his co-driver Bernard Occelli on a Toyota Official Celica Turbo, the first for France while France had obtained a Manufacturers' title thanks to Alpine from the first season of the world championship, in 1973.

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The Frenchman also held the record for the number of victories in a season with six rallies won in 1992… until he was beaten by Sébastien Loeb in 2004.

Didier Auriol, however, holds the number of victories in the Tour de Corse, where he won six times, once more than his Alsatian counterpart. His first success came in 1988, in a Group A Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, before winning with the Lancia Delta Integrale in 1989, 1990 and 1992. The change to a Toyota Celica 4WD in 1994 hardly disturbed him, and he recorded a final victory on the Isle of Beauty in 1995.

Didier Auriol was also the first Frenchman to win the famous Rally from Finland, in 1992, 40 seconds ahead of the “Flying Finns” Juha Kankkunen, Markku Alén and Ari Vatanen. Let's not forget the 21 victories and three titles in the French rally championship.

ALSO READ > 32 years ago, Didier Auriol became the “Flying Frenchman” at the Rally of Finland