The 10 best WRC drivers of 2020

10. Takamoto Katsuta

A succession of crashes cast a cloud over the second half of the likeable Japanese’s season. But, right at the end, right at the close of 2020, he delivered a silver-lining to that cloud. And landed himself a place in Goodwood’s top 10 drivers. Winning the final powerstage of the season – and a particularly tricky one like Rally Monza – was a superb effort from Toyota’s junior driver.

In fairness, he’s forgiven his Rally Estonia shunt, which came as the speed was rising and rising and rising; the eggs and omelette analogy were bang on in Tartu. Less so in Sardinia when he tripped over on the final day in a needless crash that briefly blocked the stage. But between the misdemeanours, he’s getting quicker and he remains, by some distance, Japan’s most exciting prospect yet for a genuine world championship contender.

9. Teemu Suninen

Like his countryman at the other end of M-Sport’s service park garage, Teemu Suninen’s was a season which promised much, showed the odd flash of opportunity and speed, but ultimately didn’t deliver across the spread of the shortened 2020.

A significantly sized shakedown moment took the wind out of his sails in Sweden, but he bounced back with a solid podium in México. A suspension-related retirement from sixth place in Turkey wasn’t a great result, but a charging run through the first day of Sardinia left him leading for the first three stages and challenging very much at the sharp end of the field for the remainder of Friday. As the faster weekend stages arrived, so the Finnish Fiesta’s challenge faded. Having come from karting, he was looking forward to Monza, only to retire with an engine problem after five stages.

8. Esapekka Lappi

It was hard not to feel a degree of sympathy for Esapekka Lappi coming into this season. Just coming to terms with how to drive a Citroën quickly, his team-mate Sébastien Ogier ups sticks, walks and gives the French firm the perfect reason to pull the plug. Landing the last remaining World Rally Car seat for 2020 indicated his luck had changed and Lappi’s start to this season was solid enough with M-Sport.

He was at the races with fourth in Monte and bagged more points with a top-five in Sweden, but a rally ending and car-engulfing fire in México sent him into the coronavirus-enforced break on a particular low-point. A lack of testing in the second half of the season did little to feed Lappi’s confidence in a Ford Fiesta WRC. That lack of comfort showed in a miserable pair of rallies in Estonia and Turkey. A solid start in Sardinia was lost to engine failure. He then led early doors in Monza, but slipped to fourth by the finish. 

7. Oliver Solberg

Coming into this season, the son of 2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg had started just one WRC round. Hardly surprising, given that he’d only just turned 18. The first three rallies of 2020 reminded Oliver Solberg that this was the big, bad world of rallying’s top flight, but in the second half of the year, the Monster Energy driver was awesome. Had he braked fractionally earlier for one corner in Sardinia (and not overshot his Skoda into a ditch) he would have finished his last three WRC rounds in the top 10. Overall. In an R5 car.

Solberg still has lots to learn in terms of rally craft, but the maturity he showed in bringing the car home in some of the most complicated conditions on record at the Monza finale was a graphic demonstration of this boy’s natural talent. And almost as exciting as his spell-binding speed between the trees on his way to ninth overall in Estonia in the late summer.

6. Thierry Neuville

The arrival of Ott Tänak into a team which Thierry Neuville bossed for the previous six years looked to have motivated the Belgian more than ever. Maybe this really was going to be the year when he delivered on all that promise.

He started the year with a quite brilliant final-day charge to victory at Rally Monte-Carlo. But after that, he misfired again. Nobody doubts Thierry’s speed. Look at the stats: he was fastest on more stages than anybody, but he only led for a third of the number of the stages Ogier managed. He did suffer at the hands of his Hyundai in México and Monza and did finish runner-up in Turkey and Sardinia, but the bespectacled one’s 2020 campaign never really appeared to ignite into a full-bore championship challenge.

There’s no doubting Tänak’s arrival has helped force the i20’s development forwards, but Neuville can ill-afford to be cast into his team-mate’s shadow next season.

5. Dani Sordo/Craig Breen

Let’s fiddle this one a little bit, the fifth best performing car in Goodwood’s top 10 this year was the third Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC. Granted, Dani Sordo benefitted from starting further down the order on a Sardinian road with more grip in it than the full-time championship battlers up front, but he still had to steer the thing to bring home that second successive WRC win on the Italian island. And his pace on the northern Italian finale was sensational.

Breen might have missed out on that elusive first WRC win this year, but his effort at Rally Estonia was simply superb. He matched home hero and team-mate Ott Tänak for mile after mile through the defending world champion’s backyard and looked entirely comfortable at those speeds. The Irishman was lined up for an Ypres outing before the Belgian event was cancelled and, on his current form, it’s perfectly possible he could have finally taken WRC win number one.

4. Kalle Rovanperä

Started the season as a WRC green teen and ended it as arguably the fastest 20-something in history of the sport. Ahead of the season, Rovanperä talked down his chances. He was all about the experience. And fast rallies? Forget them. How could he do anything with literally no idea how to drive a car with so much aerodynamic grip?

Then Rally Sweden happened and he won his first ever powerstage. As if taking a maiden five-point finale wasn’t enough, he did it in the most horrible conditions imaginable. Oh, and in doing it, he knocked his rather celebrated team-mate – Ogier – off the bottom step of the podium.

One of the biggest disappointments of the season was Rovanperä’s third-stage puncture in Estonia. The Finn, now clearly up to speed with aero, had flown through the first gravel stage to set his stall out early. But shipping half a minute with a puncture on the season’s quickest rally makes a comeback all-but impossible. Thereafter, his year showed flashes of that precocious speed, but, good as his word, he spent much of the time chasing experience.

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3. Ott Tänak

The Estonian made the worst possible start to his 2019 World Rally Championship defence with the biggest shunt of his career (and that includes rolling into a lake in México five years ago). His Rallye Monte-Carlo crash was massive and left him still nursing sore bits on round two in Sweden. Two second places and an exceptional home win over the next three rounds were enough to power him and his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC firmly back into contention for the championship.

Tänak was truly riding the crest of a wave after a crushing success in Tartu, but that wave broke in Turkey. And again (if a wave can break twice) in Sardinia, when he suffered steering and suspension issues. Those failures undoubtedly cost Tänak his tilt at a second consecutive title, while his hopes of ending 2020 with a win were curtailed by the need to drive sensibly to deliver the Koreans a second consecutive manufacturers’ title.  

2. Sébastien Ogier

At the start of the season, super Séb could have been forgiven for forgetting what colour overalls he was supposed to be wearing on day one of Rallye Monte-Carlo. The Frenchman drove for his fourth team in five years in 2020, following his dramatic switch from Citroën to Toyota ahead of this season.

Not winning the season opener was something of a novelty for Ogier (you have to go back to 2013 for the last time he didn’t succeed in the race through his native French Alps) and it definitely took him slightly longer to settle into the Yaris WRC than folk expected. It took him two rounds… He was winning by round three, Mexico in March. Coming back after the pandemic-made break, he was best of the non-flying Hyundais in Estonia, then looked ready to tighten his grip on the championship lead next time out in Turkey. Unfortunately for him, a puncture, transmission problem and engine fault made his Marmaris trip pointless. But he never gave up and was rewarded when Evans slipped off the road on the final round.

1. Elfyn Evans

How are we measuring this top 10? If it’s based purely on statistics; all about the head, it’s potentially churlish and probably inaccurate not to install our seven-time world champion in here. But it’s not all about the head. There’s a wee bit of subjective heart in here too.

Speaking subjectively, Elfyn Evans was the best driver of the year. He might not have been the fastest on every event, but Rally Turkey – and the Sunday morning Çetibeli stage in particular – was not one to be rushed. Toyota’s Welshman handled that one beautifully to deliver a finely judged win and a 19-point lead in the championship. But if it’s speed you want, take a peek at Rally Sweden. Nobody could touch Evans through what was one of the most complicated, virtually snow-free, but typically rapid Swedens in ages. And above all of that, he had solid consistency as the only driver to score on all seven rounds. And that right-hander in Bergamo would have caught anybody out. And… and, and.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.