Rally Chile – Ten Rally1, a solid line-up in WRC2, but no Mads Ostberg

We had to wait 4 years before seeing Chile return to the World Rally Championship calendar. Organized for the first time in WRC in 2019, the event then had to be canceled due to the situation in the country and then the health crisis got involved. This year, nothing should prevent the South American meeting from taking place and barring disaster it will still be on the program next year.

While Chile could be decisive for the title between Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans, the field in Rally1 will be “very” plentiful as if to celebrate this 2nd edition at this level. With only 10 Rally1s, there's nothing to get excited about either, but it's still better than many rounds in Europe.

There will only be 3 Toyota with Takamoto Katsuta nominated to score points and 3 Hyundai including Teemu Suninen who was preferred to Dani Sordo. The Finn has experience of the country having driven there in 2019, which was not the case for the Spaniard. Finally, the structure M-Sport will regain a scale that it has not experienced for several months with 4 Ford Puma Rally1.

Local Alberto Heller could not miss this opportunity and Grégoire Munster will come to make his mark in the higher category. These two participations will bring a little novelty while the battle in WRC2 will be one of the things not to be missed during this event.

Great names in WRC2 in Chile

When was there such a list of contenders for a race run so far from Europe? The vitality (19 crews out of a total of 55) and the quality of the WRC2 field confirm the FIA's desire not to undertake anything that could alter the health of this competition. With 8 possible winners, the battle promises to be great. Having lost his title chances Oliver Solberg will be able to concentrate on victory.

Emil Lindholm, Sami Pajari or Fergus Greensmith will be aiming for important points before the last two meetings. The absence of Andreas Mikkelsen could allow Yohan Rossel to regain the lead of WRC2. Before this expedition outside Europe, the Gardois of the PH-Sport team is 16 units behind and he has the means to arrive as leader at the start of his final rally in Central Europe.

Appearing on the entry list, Mads Ostberg was due to make his return to the WRC in Chile. Absent since Catalunya 2021, the 2 WRC2020 world champion was in negotiations with the Heller family to have a Citroën C3 Rally2, but it was not possible to find common ground.

Chile will offer 16 special stages and 321,06 km timed courses distributed in a very classic way with loops of 3 or 2 ES to be competed twice in the Biobío region.

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