The 2017 FIA WRC2 Championship is the fifth season of the

WRC2 The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA WRC2 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after Rally ...

, a

rallying Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (sometimes called "rally racing" in United States), navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed ...

championship organised and governed by the

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an international organisation with two primary functions surrounding use of the automobile. Its mobility division advocacy, advocates the interests of motoring organisations, the automot ...

, running in support of the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

. The Championship is open to cars complying with R4, R5, and

Super 2000 Super 2000 is an Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA powertrain specification used in the World Rally Championship, the British Touring Car Championship, the World Touring Car Championship, and other touring car racing, touring car ...

regulations.

Esapekka Lappi Esapekka Lappi (; 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 ...

did not return to defend his

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

title as he left

Škoda Motorsport ŠKODA Motorsport is the sports factory team of the car manufacturer Škoda Auto, currently focusing on the development and construction of racing cars. The latest model from Škoda Motorsport's workshops is the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, which was ...

for the top WRC category to become third driver of

Toyota GAZOO Racing Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) is a motorsport division of the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota. Alongside competition activities, the division develops technologies for the Gazoo Racing (GR) sub-brand of Toyota's sports and performance-oriented pro ...

. However,

retained the title thanks to

Pontus Tidemand Pontus Johan Tidemand (born 10 December 1990) is a Swedish rally and rallycross driver. He is the 2017 WRC-2 champion and a previous M-Sport and Škoda Motorsport driver. Pontus is the son of Swedish rally driver Tomas Tidemand and ex-rally co ...

who won the championship after

Rallye Deutschland The ADAC Rallye Deutschland is a Rallying, rally event held in Germany. The event was first held in 1982 and originally hosted by e.g. Frankfurt, Mainz and Koblenz. In 2000, the rally was relocated to the region around Trier. Previously part of ...

Calendar

Teams and drivers

Regulation changes

Sporting regulations

* The format of the series will change to include three events nominated by the FIA that will be compulsory for all crews competing for points. This represents a change from previous years, where competitors were free to enter as many rounds of the championship as they wished, nominating individual rounds to count as their points-scoring events. The change was introduced to address concerns over the potential for an anticlimactic championship, where the championship could be resolved without the leading crews directly competing against one another. The Rallies of Portugal, Germany and Great Britain are the compulsory events for 2017.

Season report

The championship started with

Andreas Mikkelsen Andreas Mikkelsen (born 22 June 1989) is a Norwegian rally driver. He is currently competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT. He previously drove for the factory teams of Volkswagen and Citroën, finishing third in th ...

, in a one-off outing with

after losing his WRC drive because of the

Volkswagen Motorsport The Volkswagen R Motorsport was a works rally team of the Germany, German car manufacturer Volkswagen, who competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and Dakar Rally. The team started competing in WRC in 1978 World Rally Championship season ...

withdrawal from the sport, winning the Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo by more than 3 minutes from teammate

Jan Kopecký Jan Kopecký (born 28 January 1982) is a professional rally driver from Czech Republic who drives for Škoda Motorsport. He is the 2013 ERC champion, 2018 WRC-2 champion as well as a multiple champion of the Czech Rally Championship. Career ...

. Mikkelsen won 10 out of 15 stages, and led from start to end. The podium was completed by Monte veteran and previous winner Bryan Bouffier.

Eric Camilli Eric Camilli (born 6 September 1987) is a French rally driver. He has competed in the World Rally Championship since 2014. After starting out in the lower levels, he made his debut in the top level in 2016 while driving for M-Sport in a Ford F ...

finished fourth in his first outing with the

M-Sport World Rally Team The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team (formerly "M-Sport World Rally Team", "Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team", and "Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team") is the privately run World Rally Championship team of M-Sport, the firm run by Malcolm Wilson that w ...

after being demoted from the team's WRC drivers line up.

Ole Christian Veiby Ole Christian Veiby is a professional rally driver from Norway driving for Hyundai Motorsport in the WRC-2 category of the World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned ...

was the early leader of the

Rally Sweden The Rally Sweden (), formerly the KAK-Rally, the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, as a ...

, winning the first two stages of the rally, but a push by

in which he won five of the remaining six stages of the leg 1, made him the Leader of the rally, a position he would maintain for the rest of the legs. Tidemand's victory give

the second victory of the season in a row. The Podium was completed by

Teemu Suninen Teemu Suninen (; born 1 February 1994) is a Finnish rally driver. He currently competes part-time for the Hyundai team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). Rally career Suninen won the WRC-3 class in the 2014 Rally Finland and 2015 Rally ...

and Veiby.

Rally Mexico Rally Mexico, formerly known as Rally America is a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. The rally entered the championship schedule in the 2004 season. The event's itinerary is based in the state of Guanajuato. The stages take place in ...

was a two-way fight between Camilli and Tidemand. By the end of Leg 2, Tidemand was on top by just 2 seconds. Nevertheless, Camilli choose wet tires for the last leg, and could not match the times of Tidemand, thus the Sweden won his second rally in a row, and give

the third out of three win in the season. The podium was completed by local and former Production World Rally Champion

Benito Guerra Benito Iván Guerra Latapí (born 25 March 1985) is a Mexican rally driver competing for Citroën Racing, a privateer team in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2013, with his co-driver Borja Rozada. In 2012 he won the Production Worl ...

returned to the

's team for the

Tour de Corse The Tour de Corse is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was the French round of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season until 2008, was part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge from 2011 to 2012, and ...

, and dominated the event, leading from start to finish.

finished second, taking the position after his teammate

hit trouble in the first leg. The podium was completed by local

Yohan Rossel Yohan Rossel (; born 13 February 1995) is a French people, French rallying, rally driver. In 2021, he became the driver's champion in the World Rally Championship-3, WRC3 category. Rossel is also the 2019 French Rally champion. His younger brothe ...

. Mikkelsen's win was his second in as many outings.

won the

Rally Argentina The Rally Argentina () is an Argentine rally competition that has been a round of the World Rally Championship, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the South American Rally Championship and the Argentine Rally Championship. It is held in the ...

by more than 10 minutes from local Juan Carlos Alonso to continue

's winning streak. Tidemand found a trouble-free weekend in one of the roughest events of the year were only five WRC-2 Crews finished the event.

completed the podium. Mikkelsen returned for the

Rally de Portugal The Rally de Portugal (formerly: Rallye de Portugal) is a rally competition held in Portugal. First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the 7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural FIA World Rally Cham ...

and looked set to take another dominant win, only to roll his car on the very last stage of the rally whilst holding a 3 minute lead. This subsequently handed Tidemand his fourth win from six rallies, with the podium being completed by

and reigning Junior WRC champion Simone Tempestini.

Results and standings

Season summary

FIA WRC2 Championship for Drivers

Points are awarded to the top ten classified finishers.

FIA WRC2 Championship for Co-Drivers

FIA WRC2 Championship for Teams

Notes

References

External links

Official website of the World Rally ChampionshipOfficial website of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
{{World Rally Championship results