Hyundai Motorsport is preparing to take part in the Rally of Portugal, the fourth round of the 2022 WRC season and the first of the year on clay. However, just this morning, it made official its driver line up for another World Championship event: the Safari Rally.
The African event, which returned to the WRC calendar in 2020 but was held for the first time only last year due to the COVID pandemic, will be held from 23 to 26 June in Kenya, just like last year.
For this event, the Alzenau-based team chose Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe on the first hybrid i20 N Rally1. The Belgian crew, owner of car number 11, is also the best placed in the Drivers’ World Championship to date and will continue to chase after Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen.
On the i20 N Rally2 hybrid number 8, on the other hand, there will be the 2019 world champions, namely Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja. The Estonians have to recover a lot from the leaders after an unlucky start to the season. In the dirt stages they could take advantage of their starting position to win some events and get back into the fight for the title.
The surprise is certainly the crew that will be on the third i20 N Rally1. This will be marked with the number 2, for this reason it is clear that Oliver Solberg will be behind the wheel and Elliott Edmondson at the notes. For the Swede it will be a good test of maturity, because the Safari is one of the most difficult rallies of the entire season, made up of a thousand pitfalls and very convincing not only for the cars, but also for the crews themselves.
Solberg and Edmondson took part in the first 3 events of the season, namely the Rallye Monte-Carlo, the Rally of Sweden and the Rally of Croatia. Dani Sordo and Candido Carrera will race at the Rally of Portugal and the Rally Italia Sardegna, the latter being the event that Sordo has won twice over the last 3 years.
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