For the first time in the history of rally competitions in our country, a World Rally Championship (WRC) team will compete here. At the invitation of the organisers, the Hyundai Motorsport team will come to the Žemaitija region.
The friendship between this team and Lithuania began in 2017 when Thierry Neuville, Hayden Paddon, and Dani Sordo trained during private tests in the Zarasai district. After a seven-year break, the German-coordinated team is returning to Lithuania, bringing with it the fastest and most modern rally car in the world – the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid, driven by Finnish Esapekka Lappi.
Hyundai Motorsport’s second visit to Lithuania will begin on Friday. The organisers will hold a shakedown stage for them separate from all other participants.
Later, the guests of honour will take part in the highlight of the event – the Lietuva Rally 2024. Hyundai Motorsport did not choose the surroundings of Mažeikiai, Akmene, Viekšniai, and Telšiai by chance – next week, the round of the World Rally Championship will take place in neighbouring Latvia.
For factory teams, national events are an excellent testing ground before the upcoming battles in the WRC: they not only test their cars in similar racing conditions but also bypass the strict limit of 21 test days per year.
Thierry Neuville, the world championship leader, was also due to come to Mažeikiai. After the Polish WRC round, the Belgian expressed his concern about the non-functioning engine map program, which was updated shortly before the rally. According to the original plan, Neuville wanted to test and prepare the car before the WRC event in Latvia next week, but unexpected events changed plans.
Last week, Neuville’s teammate Ott Tänak was in his home country preparing for his upcoming start in the Rally Latvia. The team prepared a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid with chassis number 20 for him, used exclusively for training in private tests or national rallies. However, Tänak crashed the car on the second stage of the Rally Estonia.
The team began bodywork at local Estonian service centre on the same day but later decided not to bring the second car to Lithuania.
Lietuva Rally 2024 will consist of 13 special stages and 103.54 competitive kilometres over two days. The first leg will start on Friday evening with 3.88 and 9.13 kilometres long stages, which will be driven twice. Later, in the late evening, the crews will complete a very short 1 kilometre tarmac special stage in Viekšniai town before bringing the cars into the Parc Ferme.
The second leg starts before midday and follows a classic format: two stages (11.26 km and 8.69 km) will be driven twice, after which a 45-minute service awaits the competitors. After that, two more stages (6.84 km and 11.45 km) will be driven twice.
The rally itself consists of fairly flat terrain and long straights, but two completely new Saturday stages in the Telšiai region will spice up the rally route with one winding and one very technical forest stage.
Since Esapekka Lappi has no direct rivals, it is also worth keeping an eye on the national field. There will also be something historic, as Dakar Rally competitor Vaidotas Žala will drive the latest evolution of the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, prepared by the Sport Racing Technologies team, for the first time in Lithuanian rally history.
He will be chased by Vladas Jurkevičius with the older Evo version of the Škoda Fabia, whose famous design has been seen at several WRC and ERC events nearby in recent years. The other three Škoda Fabia R5s will try to keep the same pace, with former Lithuanian rally champion Giedrius Notkus among the favourites to win the national field.
Live results and GPS mapping will be available at www.autorally.lt.
