The 10 best WRC drivers of 2021

10. Oliver Solberg

The beginning of Oliver Solberg’s season was sublime and the end was right up there too, signing off on his first year as a Hyundai Motorsport driver in the World Rally Championship with fifth place at Rally Monza.

Back to the beginning and seventh place at Arctic Rally Finland – his World Rally Car debut in the WRC – was a similarly special result. On paper, seventh might not sound like all that, but it was only a final-stage spin that robbed him of sixth and it’s worth remembering that, for much of day two, the then teenager was fighting tooth and nail with seven-time world champion Sébastien Ogier. And this was no running order thing, they were competing in the same conditions with Solberg following the Frenchman into the stages.

There then followed a run of rough form with accidents and incidents marring the mid-season, but he bounced back with a sensible seventh in Spain and that utterly assured fifth place in Monza. Like so many of his contemporaries, Solberg has learned lots this season and it will be fascinating to see how he turns that knowledge to power next season. He shares a seat with Sordo at Hyundai Motorsport in 2022 and being able to call on the vastly experienced Spaniard will be entirely valuable for the son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.

9. Takamoto Katsuta

Four drivers could have sat at either ninth or tenth on this list: Takamoto Katsuta, the aforementioned Oliver Solberg, Dani Sordo and Adrien Fourmaux.

The latter would sit 11^th were this a top 11 drivers. Fourmaux has shown real progression and promise in his step from Rally2 to a World Rally Car – with his maiden WRC fastest time on the Safari Rally demonstrating both speed and a degree of cheekiness, coming as it did with a sizeable cut.

Staying in Kenya, delivers the highlight of Katsuta’s season. The Japanese driver was just 21.8 seconds off winning the Safari. Winning. Not even Taka himself was ready for that sort of result. It was, however, a natural progression. A trio of sixth places opened his 2021 account and were followed by a brace of fourths. The podium was definitely in his sights when he set out for to Africa.

From then on, Katsuta’s first full season in the world championship went south for a long while. A heavy landing in Estonia injured co-driver Dan Barritt’s neck and forced them to stop. Three accidents in three rallies followed in what was a difficult period for the likeable Toyota junior. Katsuta has taken all kinds of experience from 2021 and all of it will be enormously useful as he moves forward into next season.

8. Andreas Mikkelsen

The combination of a WRC2 and European Rally Championship programme with Toksport Skoda meant Andreas Mikkelsen would be a busy, busy man through this season. At times there were definitely questions raised about how full-on 2021 was for the Norwegian; yes, seat time’s great for keeping you sharp, but there’s also plenty to be said for some downtime and a moment to gather one’s thoughts. Mikkelsen had plenty of time to gather his thoughts when COVID-19 interrupted his efforts and benched him for Portugal.

Ultimately, everything worked out for the likeable for Volkswagen Motorsport star. He lifted both WRC2 and ERC crowns – hence a rather splendid gold livery for the Rally Monza conclusion to the year – but Esapekka Lappi’s speed in Lapland and Portugal cast a small shadow and arguably cost him a Toyota seat next season.

That’s hard on Andreas. He did a solid job and showed himself to be the class of a quality field across the spread of the season. Mistakes in Croatia and Sardinia cost him points, but his ability to bounce back from those two mistakes demonstrated maturity and ability beyond the obvious speed.

Does he deserve another shot at the big time? Yes. Is he going to get it? There’s nothing in the bag or obviously on the horizon right now.

7. Esapekka Lappi

When a disgruntled Esapekka Lappi said his goodbyes to the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team at the end of last season, plenty predicted it could be the end of the Finn’s time at the sport’s sharp end. That was more of a reflection on the dearth of factory seats rather than a comment on his 2020 pace aboard the Fiesta WRC.

Lappi’s decision to go head-to-head with the best of the best in the sport’s second division was inspired. When Andreas Mikkelsen came out and talked of his desire to dominate the WRC2 category – not, it’s worth noting, just to win the title, but to dominate proceedings – he painted a target on his back. Lappi locked onto that target and deployed a quite stunning performance at Arctic Rally Finland. It was the Finn who dominated.

It was the same story in Portugal where Mikkelsen was absent, ruled out by a bout of coronavirus. As it became increasingly clear Sébastien Ogier would retire from full-time rallying next season, it became similarly clear that there would be space in the Frenchman’s Yaris on a number of rallies in 2022.

Lappi, Mikkelsen and Teemu Suninen were the prime candidates. Lappi won. Hands down. Hiring a Yaris WRC for Rally Finland was the clincher, not least because he showed enough speed to trade times for a podium on the Jyväskylä-based event… despite not having driven a World Rally Car for 10 months.

Seventh might seem high for a driver who only started three rallies, but Lappi was pure class this season.

6. Craig Breen

Craig Breen only started five rounds with Hyundai Motorsport this season, but the Irishman’s form on four of those five was spellbinding. He started the year with a strong couple of days at Arctic Rally Finland, before fading to fourth on the final day. In Croatia, he simply couldn’t make the car work for him. Unable to source the grip or the confidence he needed to challenge, a distant eighth place beckoned. That was the only lowpoint for Breen this season.

The three events which followed demonstrated why M-Sport Ford was so quick to snap him up ahead of next season.

Breen led in Estonia, Belgium and Finland before finishing with a record which read: second, second, third.

Repeating his runners-up spot in Tartu was brilliant – not least when you consider the last time he was on the dirt in a World Rally Car was in Estonia 12 months earlier. Arguably, his best chance to win came on the ensuing asphalt lanes around Ypres. It would have been naïve, however, to think Breen ever really stood a realistic chance of taking the win ahead of a Belgian team-mate who was still in with a shot at the drivers’ title at that point.

Rounding out his time with the Korean manufacturer with podium in Jyväskylä was a great sign-off for Breen. This year showed exactly what he’s capable of. He needs to use 2021 as a springboard into his first ever full WRC campaign next season.

5. Ott Tanäk

Do we believe in luck? If the answer’s yes, then you’d have to agree that it was misfortune which defined Ott Tänak’s season. A double puncture on round one forced his retirement from Monte Carlo and set the tone for what would be a miserable year ahead.

Back-to-back suspension problems in Portugal and Sardinia effectively ruled the Estonian out of the title race, while his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC’s inability to clear the windscreen ahead of him when the rain came in Kenya forced further caustic comment from him at the end of the final Saturday stage on the Safari. Ultimately it was his own mistake at home in Estonia that really nailed the lid down on his title aspirations, but the 2019 champion deserved more from 2021.

Ahead of a final round – which he missed for personal reasons – nobody had set more fastest times than he had. In fact, nobody even came close. Prior to Rally Monza, Tänak had won 10 more than his nearest rival. When the car was working and he had pressure in the Pirellis beneath him, he was quicker than anybody else. His all-conquering win at Arctic Rally Finland was one of the season’s highlights. Signing off on his second Hyundai campaign with a Spanish shunt summed things up really.

4. Thierry Neuville

None of the gaps between the positions in this top 10 are huge. But the difference between fourth and fifth is miniscule to the point that the two Hyundai Motorsport men could probably have shared fourth.

Neuville takes it because he scored more points and led for longer than his colleague. As was the case for Tänak, had things worked in his favour – had the suspension not collapsed in Kenya, for example – Neuville could and should have been in a stronger position to fight for this year’s title. The Safari Rally retirement was the real heartbreaker. Few would deny Neuville deserved that one. He was brilliant on the WRC’s return to Africa and was only let down by the car.

Conversely, his absence of fast gravel pace remains something of an enigma. He was struggling to make any impression on Rally Finland when he damaged the radiator and retired. One thing Neuville demonstrated this year was consistency with seven podiums. Five of those were third places and they were the key to laying down a foundation of early season points – especially important when he and new co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were getting to know each other following Nicolas Gilsoul’s late call to end his partnership with Neuville.

Highlight for the Belgians? Victory in Belgium, of course. It was an understandably emotional Ypres Rally win for the bespectacled one.

3. Kalle Rovanperä

This was one heck of a season for the Finn. He bossed Estonia and dominated the Acropolis – two events at either end of the gravel rally spectrum. It’s easy to forget two things about Rovanperä – the first being that this was only his second season at the sport’s highest level. The second being that he started this season as a 20-year-old. In a sport where experience is perceived to be of such significance, what the Toyota driver did was quite exceptional.

Yes, there was a stage one Croatia shunt and an argument with a pile of soil at home, but otherwise Rovanperä was dependable, quick and very spectacular.

His 2021 highlight had to be that summer trio of podiums in Tartu, Ypres and Lamia (with third in Belgium bookended by wins). If there was a disappointment it was his home form. Going into a hastily re-arranged round two in Rovaniemi, Kalle was reckoned to be the clear favourite. His frustration at second place in Lapland spoke volumes about what he might have done had the Yaris WRC been set up to his liking. And this season told an even more pertinent tale of what the world can expect moving forwards. This year, Toyota and Finland’s World Rally Championship future was ringfenced by Harri’s boy.

2. Elfyn Evans

Had he not ripped a wheel off in Kenya or suffered at the hands of his Toyota Yaris WRC’s fragile gearbox in Greece, Evans would likely have lifted this year’s title trophy.

The Briton’s speed and stature in the sport continues to grow and grow. He missed out by a whisker last season and, for the second year in succession, was the only man capable of challenging Ogier across the spread of a campaign. In 2021, as in 2020, it was an Ogier-Evans head-to-head final round.

Ultimately Elfyn came up short this time, but performances like the one he turned in at Rally Finland have marked him out among the favourites heading into next season and the new generation.

In Jyväskylä, the stars aligned for Evans. In a car designed and built in Finland, he drove like a local and nobody could hold a candle to the supersonic Welshman. That epic result was, however, countered by middling events in Estonia and Ypres, where he simply couldn’t find the balance and confidence he needed from the car.

The ability to get the best out of a sub-optimal package is, perhaps, the sole remaining chink in Evans’ armour. Get that right and he could well be on target to turn silver to gold in 2023.

1. Sébastien Ogier

Granted, this wasn’t one of the Frenchman’s crushingly dominant seasons. He didn’t win with rallies to spare and a 114-point margin as he did when he lifted his maiden title in 2013. At times, Ogier looked a little bit lost – think back to places like Greece or Finland, where he struggled to make any kind of an impression on the fight for the lead – but the important thing is that he emerged from that time with enough in reserve to score an eighth championship win in nine years at the final round in Monza.

And, somewhat ironically, he secured the title with a classic Ogier win. His performance at the season finale was exceptional. Scuffing a wheel on a concrete barrier aside, his drive through the mountains and across the Monza circuit and link roads was sublime.

When Ogier’s backed into a corner, few have his ability to come out fighting, to land meaningful blows and to win rallies through pace, performance and, at times, sheer bloody-mindedness. That’s what he did in 2021.

Winning in Croatia this season was some achievement. Involved in a road accident on Sunday morning, he drove the final day wondering whether he would be excluded, possibly even detained by the police. He kept his head down, his eye in and drove an outstanding final stage to edge team-mate and fellow Toyota Yaris WRC driver Elfyn Evans by 0.6 seconds.

Having already announced his retirement, an eighth title was the perfect way to bow out from full-time WRC employment.

If you’re an Ogier fan, make sure you read our list of Sébastien Ogier’s 10 best WRC wins.