The World Rally Championship is an international rallying series owned and governed by the FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the second oldest of the FIA's world championships after Formula One. Each season lasts one calendar year, and separate championship titles are awarded to drivers, co-drivers and manufacturers. There are also two support championships, WRC2 and WRC3, which are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC, but with progressively lower maximum performance and running costs of the cars permitted. Junior WRC is also contested on five events of the World Rally Championship calendar.
Carlos Sainz Cenamor is a Spanish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992, and finished runner-up four times. Constructors' world champions to have benefited from Sainz are Subaru (1995), Toyota (1999) and Citroën. In the 2018 season, he was one of the official drivers of the Team Peugeot Total. He received the Princess of Asturias Sports Award in 2020. Sainz founded the Acciona | Sainz XE Team to join Extreme E and competed in the first two seasons alongside Laia Sanz.
Juha Matti Pellervo Kankkunen is a Finnish former rally driver. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1983 to 2002. He won 23 world rallies and four drivers' world championship titles, which were both once records in the series. Both Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier have since collected more world titles, but no driver was able to repeat Kankkunen's feat of becoming a world champion with three different manufacturers until Ogier matched this achievement in 2020.
Markku Allan Alén is a Finnish former rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru and Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the record for most stage wins (801) in the series, until Sébastien Loeb overtook it at the 2011 Rally Catalunya. Alén's phrase "now maximum attack" became well-known.
Didier Auriol is a French former rally driver. Born in Montpellier and initially an ambulance driver, he competed in the World Rally Championship throughout the 1990s. He became World Rally Champion in 1994, the first driver from his country to do so. He was a factory candidate for Lancia, Toyota and Peugeot among others, before losing his seat at Škoda at the end of 2003. His sister Nadine was also involved in rallying as a co-driver, while his brother Gerrard was also a former rally driver.
The 2002 World Rally Championship was the 30th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. Marcus Grönholm won his second drivers' world championship in a Peugeot 206 WRC, ahead of Petter Solberg and Carlos Sainz. The manufacturers' title was won by Peugeot, ahead of Ford and Subaru.
The 2000 World Rally Championship was the 28th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Marcus Grönholm in a Peugeot 206 WRC, breaking the streak of Tommi Mäkinen who had won the previous 4 titles for Mitsubishi, ahead of Richard Burns and Carlos Sainz. The manufacturers' title was won by Peugeot, ahead of Ford and Subaru.
The 1998 World Rally Championship was the 26th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 13 rallies. Tommi Mäkinen won his third consecutive drivers' world championship driving for Mitsubishi, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. The manufacturers' title was won by Mitsubishi, ahead of Toyota and Subaru. This year also marked the Ford Escort's last full-season works outing before being replaced by the Ford Focus WRC in 1999. The season ended in dramatic fashion when Carlos Sainz's Corolla WRC stopped approximately 300 metres from the finishing line in the final stage at Margam due to mechanical failure, thus surrendering his fourth place on the rally and handing the title to Mäkinen.
The 1997 World Rally Championship was the 25th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season saw many changes in the championship. Most notably, Group A was partially replaced by the World Rally Car with manufacturers given the option which regulations to construct to. One inherent benefit to manufacturers by adopting WRC regulations was removing the need to mass-produce road-going versions of the cars that they competed with, under the previous rules for homologation. This meant that vehicles such as the Escort RS Cosworth and Subaru Impreza Turbo no longer had to be mass-produced for general sale in order to compete at World Championship level, and thus acting as a means of attracting increased competition and involvement by manufacturers. In the few years that follow, the Championship saw the added presence of WRC cars from companies such as Toyota, Hyundai, Seat, Citroën, and Peugeot, who would all compete under WRC regulations without having to manufacture equivalent specialised road cars for public sale. Both Ford and Subaru switched to WRC in 1997, except Mitsubishi who stayed with Group A to maintain the links to their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution road cars. Subaru's transition was much more gradual for similar reasons with the early Subaru Impreza WRCs still largely Group A in nature.
The 1996 World Rally Championship was the 24th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 9 rallies. As a result of their 1995 disqualification, Toyota Team Europe were not allowed to compete in this year's championship, so only three works teams contested the championship. The drivers' world championship was won by Tommi Mäkinen in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3, ahead of Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz. The manufacturers' title was won by Subaru.
The 1995 World Rally Championship was the 23rd season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 8 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Colin McRae in a Subaru Impreza 555, ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz. The manufacturers' title was won by Subaru.
The 1994 World Rally Championship was the 22nd season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 10 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Didier Auriol in a Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Juha Kankkunen. The manufacturers' title was won by Toyota, ahead of Subaru and Ford.
The 1993 World Rally Championship was the 21st season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 13 rallies. Juha Kankkunen won his fourth drivers' world championship in a Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD, ahead of François Delecour and Didier Auriol. The manufacturers' title was won by Toyota, ahead of Ford and Subaru.
The 1986 World Rally Championship was the 14th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 13 rallies, including all twelve venues of the previous season as well as the addition of the Olympus Rally. This marked the return of the WRC to the United States and North America, as well as the first world rally to be held on the western side of the continent. The December rally would also be the only WRC event to feature Group B competition in the United States.
The 1988 World Rally Championship was the 16th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 13 rallies, following the same schedule as the previous season.
The 1989 World Rally Championship was the 17th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 13 rallies, with some adjustments to the schedule versus the previous season. The WRC ended its participation in North America by removing the Olympus Rally from the schedule, implementing in its place Rally Australia. An anomaly in the schedule was that 1989 was the only year in which the Swedish Rally and the Rallye de Monte Carlo were switched in place, with the Swedish event taking place to start the year. This made it the second and last time that Monte Carlo would not mark the first event of the WRC season until the 2009 season.
The 1991 World Rally Championship was the 19th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 14 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Juha Kankkunen in a Lancia Delta Integrale 16V, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol. The manufacturers' title was won by Lancia, ahead of Toyota and Mitsubishi.
The 1990 World Rally Championship was the 18th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 12 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Carlos Sainz in a Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165, ahead of Didier Auriol and Juha Kankkunen. The manufacturers' title was won by Lancia, ahead of Toyota and Mitsubishi.
Andrea Aghini Lombardi is an Italian rally driver. He won the 1992 Rallye Sanremo and took four other podium finishes in the World Rally Championship from 1992 to 1995. In 1992, he also won the Race of Champions, after beating Carlos Sainz in the semi-final and Colin McRae in the final.
The Lancia Delta HF is a Group A rally car built for the Martini Lancia by Lancia to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Lancia Delta road car and replaced the Lancia Delta S4. The car was introduced for the 1987 World Rally Championship season and dominated the World Rally Championship, scoring 46 WRC victories overall and winning the constructors' championship a record six times in a row from 1987 to 1992, in addition to drivers' championship titles for Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion, making Lancia the most successful marque in the history of the WRC and the Delta the most successful car.
Rallye Monte Carlo 
Swedish Rally 
Rallye de Portugal 
Safari Rally 
Tour de Corse 
Acropolis Rally 
Rally New Zealand 
Rally Argentina 
1000 Lakes Rally 
Rally Australia 
Rallye Sanremo 
Rallye Côte d'Ivoire 
Rally Catalunya 
RAC Rally 
