The Intercontinental Rally Challenge was an FIA -sanctioned rallying series organised by SRW Events and Eurosport Events , and aimed to "give new opportunities to young or amateur rally drivers competing in recognised regional and international rallies, while offering organisers an innovative TV format concept, created by Eurosport." The series focused on Group N and Group A spec cars up to 2000 cc , including Super 2000 , R4, R2 and R3.
22-486: The series began in 2006 under the name International Rally Challenge , adopting the name, Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2007. The 2012 season was the final season of the series: from 2013, the series promoter Eurosport Events was awarded responsibility for organising the rival European Rally Championship by the FIA, and the two competing series were effectively merged. This racing -related article
44-595: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . European Rally Championship The European Rally Championship (officially FIA European Rally Championship ) is an automobile rally competition held annually on the European continent and organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship has been organized since 1953 and has competed in different European countries, alternating between rallies on asphalt and gravel. It
66-476: The 2022 season in the new hybrid Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 , joining drivers Kalle Rovanperä , Elfyn Evans , and Takamoto Katsuta . With co-driver Janne Ferm , Lappi shares the third Toyota car with Sébastien Ogier and his co-driver Benjamin Veillas . At the end of the 2022 season, Lappi signed to Hyundai Motorsport for the 2023 season , meaning he had now driven on behalf of all three major manufacturers in
88-678: The Citroën C3 WRC , Lappi finished the season in tenth place after a difficult year with many retirements. He scored three podiums for the French team, by finishing second in Sweden, Finland and Turkey. After the season, Citroën announced they would depart from the World Rally Championship in 2020 after Ogier moved to Lappi's old team, Toyota, leaving Lappi to find a seat elsewhere. After Citroën's exit in 2019, Lappi signed for M-Sport to drive
110-535: The WRC calendar and have tighter restrictions on eligible car criteria. Esapekka Lappi Esapekka Lappi ( Finnish pronunciation: [ˈesɑˌpekːɑ ˈlɑpːi] ; born 17 January 1991) is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2012 Finnish Rally Champion , 2014 European Rally Champion and the 2016 WRC-2 Champion . He now drives for Hyundai Motorsport. In 2024, he won his second ever event in Rally Sweden, which broke
132-545: The WRC. Driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 , he was signed alongside Craig Breen , and now drove alongside Thierry Neuville , Dani Sordo , and Teemu Suninen. The 2023 season was also Lappi's first full-time contract since 2020, with the change to Hyundai being based on the Finn's desire for more regular driving in the championship. Lappi would go on to place in sixth in his maiden Hyundai season, ahead of Takamoto Katsuta and behind Sébastien Ogier. He would podium four different times over
154-700: The championship and the new Asphalt Masters trophy, while Polish drivers Robert Kubica and Kajetan Kajetanowicz won the Ice Masters and Gravel Masters, respectively. French driver Stéphane Lefebvre won the ERC Junior championship. The season started with the Jänner Rallye in Austria on 4 January 2015, and ended with the Rallye International du Valais on 7 November. For this year the drivers had to register for
176-421: The championship, and the categories have been renamed into ERC 1 (for S2000, R5 and RRC (last year) cars), ERC 2 (category for R4 production cars (previously titled N4)) and ERC 3 (for R1, R2 and R3 cars). Polish driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz won the championship. European Rally Championship has three support categories , ERC3, ERC4 and ERC Junior. These championships are contested on the same events and stages as
198-452: The course of the season, placing third at Croatia , Portugal , and Estonia , and placing in second at Sardinia . Lappi would re-sign with Hyundai again for the 2024 season, although this time on a part-time status and only competing on selected events. It was at Rally Sweden that Lappi earned his second WRC win, placing ahead of Elfyn Evans who finished in second place. * Season still in progress. * Season still in progress. Lappi
220-402: The driver had to register for the European championships and thus only registered drivers could score ERC points, keeping the local drivers from taking up all ERC points despite not participating in the championship. The registered drivers were also obligated to contest a minimal number of events. Between 2013 and 2021, French-based broadcaster Eurosport was the promoter of ERC. From 2022, it
242-448: The drivers' World Championship being contested from 1979 on, the importance of the ERC began to decline. Over many years, a typical ERC season featured around 40 rallies, and from 1974 on, the rallies were assigned different coefficients (1, 2, 3 or 4) that were multiplied with the championship points. Changing the coefficients to 2, 5, 10 and 20 did also not improve the situation. Thus, the ERC
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#1732849140116264-458: The events. In total, 28 registered drivers from 7 different countries competed in the championship. The 2012 season started in January with a new event, the "Jänner Rallye" in Austria. As an important change, drivers no longer had to register for the championship. Finnish driver Juho Hänninen won the championship. The 2013 season is the first after the merger between IRC and the old ERC, and also
286-498: The first after Eurosport became the championship's promoter. The season started with the Jänner Rallye in Austria on 3 January 2013, and ended with the Rallye du Valais on 9 November. Czech driver Jan Kopecký won the championship. The 2014 season started with the Jänner Rallye in Austria on 3 January 2014, and ended with the Tour de Corse on 8 November. Finnish driver Esapekka Lappi won
308-762: The last of them Rallye International du Valais in Switzerland . He finished the season fifth in the final standings. In WRC-2, he also raced in three rallies, winning Rally de Portugal where he also scored his maiden WRC -point finishing 10th overall. Lappi won the 2014 European Rally Championship title with victories in Latvia , Northern Ireland and Switzerland . Lappi continued competing with Škoda Motorsport driving their new challenger Fabia R5 in WRC-2 championship . He scored two wins in Poland and Finland on his way to finish
330-404: The record for the longest gap between wins in terms of time and number of rallies (81 rallies), with his debut win coming from his home event in 2017 Rally Finland . Lappi won the 2012 Finnish Rally Championship with Ford Fiesta S2000 winning all the 7 rounds of the championship with his co-driver Janne Ferm. In October, Lappi was signed by Škoda Motorsport . Lappi won his first rally with
352-535: The season in third place behind Nasser Al-Attiyah and Yuriy Protasov . Lappi also scored his career-best WRC result finishing eighth in Rally Finland. He won the 2016 World Rally Championship-2 with the Škoda Fabia R5 after winning in Finland , Germany , Wales and Australia . Lappi was signed by Toyota Gazoo Racing to drive a Toyota Yaris WRC in the 2017 World Rally Championship. On his second event with
374-531: The team in 2012 Rally Poland which was part of European Rally Championship , driving a Škoda Fabia S2000 . In 2013, Lappi competed full season in Asia-Pacific Rally Championship with Team MRF's Škoda Fabia S2000, and selected events in both WRC-2 and ERC with Škoda Motorsport. In APRC, Lappi won three out of six events and finished the season runner-up to his team-mate Gaurav Gill . In ERC, Lappi competed in three tarmac rallies, winning
396-463: The team, the 2017 Rally d'Italia , he won his first ever stage in the WRC, along with five more stage wins. He eventually finished fourth. In just his fourth World Rally Car start, at his home event of Rally Finland, Lappi took his first WRC victory. In October 2018, Toyota announced that Lappi would leave the team at the end of the 2018 championship. He joined Citroën for the 2019 season , partnering with multiple champion Sébastien Ogier . With
418-492: The whole season in a Ford Fiesta WRC alongside his compatriot Teemu Suninen . In 2021, Lappi drove a Volkswagen Polo GTI for Movistar (rounds 2, 4) and a Toyota Yaris WRC for RTE-Motorsport (round 10) in the WRC 2 championship alongside longtime co-driver Janne Ferm . Of the three rounds he entered, Lappi won two and finished fourth in the third, ending the season in 12th place on points. Lappi returned to Toyota Gazoo Racing for
440-510: Was more a series for event organizers than an interesting championship for drivers. A first improvement was implemented for the 2004 season, where the number of events counting for the European Rally Championship were reduced to those with coefficient 20, while the other rallies became part of regional "European Rally Cups". An ERC season now featured around 10 to 12 events and thus had a clearer structure. Between 2007 and 2011,
462-400: Was taken over by Munich based WRC Promoter GmbH . The 2010 ERC season featured 11 rallies. Luca Rossetti was the winner of 4 events and won the championship. The 2011 ERC season started on 14 April 2011 and featured 11 rallies. It ended on 29 October with the Rallye International du Valais . Italian driver Luca Rossetti claimed his third European championship title after winning 5 of
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#1732849140116484-616: Was the first supranational rally championship that was organized in the world and therefore the oldest one. In 2012 it had 60 editions and in 2013 it was renewed with the merger with the Intercontinental Rally Challenge . The European Rally Championship was first contested in 1953 and in the following year was one of the most prestigious rallying series. However, with the introduction of the World Rally Championship for manufacturers in 1973, and in particular with
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