World premiere for the Ypres Rally
The Ypres Rally will be one of the 11 rounds on the world championship calendar. This will be the first time that Belgium has hosted a World Rally Championship (WRC) event on its territory.
The Ypres Rally was added to the WRC calendar in 2020, but had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, the organisers have just confirmed that the Ypres event will remain on the world calendar this year. The 2021 event will therefore be held in August and will finally allow Belgium to become the 34th country to have the privilege of organising a round of the World Championship on its territory since the WRC was created in 1973.
First held in 1965, the Ypres Rally has already built up a solid European reputation over the years due to the difficulty of its route. The three-day competition takes place on particularly narrow and winding roads. Starting from the centre of the city of Ypres, the racers aim to travel 300 kilometres to another symbolic location for Belgian motorsport: the Spa-Francorchamps circuit and its mythical Raidillon.
Let's hope that we will see a stellar performance by our countryman Thierry Neuville, who won there in 2018.