Ranking the top 10 WRC drivers of 2021

The result of the 2021 World Rally Championship may be very familiar, but the tense battle from which Sebastien Ogier emerged with an eighth world title was as thrilling as any seen in recent years.

After the COVID pandemic severely hampered the WRC in 2020, the world’s best rally drivers tackled an expanded calendar of 13 events in 2021, including a return of classics such as the Acropolis and Safari rallies, while the challenging asphalt of Croatia and Ypres joined the schedule for the first time.

For the second year in a row, the title went down to the wire between Ogier and Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans, with the former producing a fairytale end to his full-time WRC career in the Rally Monza finale.

PLUS: Why Ogier's WRC swansong was a season to savour 

But as the current generation of high downforce rally cars prepare to be replaced by new hybrid-equipped Rally1 machines in 2022, there were several standout performers elsewhere, while new stars emerged at Hyundai and M-Sport.

Here’s Autosport's top 10 drivers from the 2021 WRC.

10. Oliver Solberg

Oliver Solberg, Hyundai 2C Competition

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

Wins: 0 (Best finish fifth)
Podiums: 0
Stage wins: 0
Championship position: 13th

The fact Hyundai were impressed enough to offer Solberg a seat in its shared third entry for next season, alongside Dani Sordo, provides a window into the talent he displayed in 2021.

Starting the year in Hyundai’s WRC2 programme, boss Andrea Adamo offered the 20-year-old son of 2003 champion Petter Solberg a full WRC debut at Arctic Rally Finland in February. The Swede did not disappoint and finished seventh, despite having to learn both the car and stand-in co-driver Seb Marshall, with regular partner Aaron Johnston sidelined by COVID.

Three more WRC drives in the i20 followed in Kenya, Spain and Rally Monza. Solberg ended the season matching his more experienced team-mates Thierry Neuville and Sordo on stage times at Monza, where he finished a career best fifth.

Just as entertaining on the stages as he is off it, if he can continue to improve his consistency, Solberg seems destined to enjoy a bright career in WRC.

9. Adrien Fourmaux

Fourmaux beat team-mate Greensmith on his first time in a full WRC car in Croatia

Photo by: M-Sport

Wins: 0 (Best finish 5th)
Podiums: 0
Stage wins: 1
Championship position: 10th

Fourmaux was another young driver that took a full WRC debut with both hands, making the most of the opportunities afforded to him by M-Sport.

The Frenchman, who contested only eight of the 12 events in the top class while initially sharing his car with Teemu Suninen, matched and beat his more experienced full-time WRC team-mate Gus Greensmith in his first outings with a WRC car. On his debut at Rally Croatia, Fourmaux turned heads by finishing fifth and challenging Sebastien Ogier for stages wins. The 26-year-old eventually clocked up his first and M-Sport’s only stage win of the season in Kenya.

His pace was impressive, but at times consistency was lacking and inexperience led to errors that were punished with big crashes, particularly in Ypres and at Monza. However, Fourmaux displayed potential that could see him become a future star.

Greensmith was more consistent than Fourmaux this season and showed flashes of speed, his fourth place on the Safari the best finish of the season for an M-Sport driver. But Fourmaux’s pace on debut, and that Safari stage win, seals him a place in the top 10.

8. Takamoto Katsuta

Katsuta scored his first podium on the Safari, but still had wild moments

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Wins: 0 (Best finish 2nd)
Podiums: 1
Stage wins: 4
Championship position: 7th

The Japanese was arguably the surprise package of 2021. Katsuta, competing in his first full season in the WRC’s top tier, was the only driver to finish every event in the top six during the first half of the campaign.

Katsuta racked up four stage wins and led a rally for the first time in Kenya before bowing to Ogier, but still claimed the first podium of his WRC career with a deserved second.

Had he kept up that form he could perhaps have challenged for a top five place in the championship, but Katsuta's season fell apart after a series of enforced co-driver changes. He was forced to pull out of Rally Estonia after regular co-driver Daniel Barritt suffered a back injury. A heavy crash in Belgium followed, before having to withdraw from Greece when substitute co-driver Keaton Williams had to attend a family emergency.

If he can enjoy a consistent 2022 campaign, the former circuit racer could prove a handy driver for Toyota next year.

7. Andreas Mikkelsen

Mikkelsen showed he's worthy of a spot in a WRC car by winning the WRC2 division

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Wins: 0 (Best finish 7th, 3 wins in WRC2)
Podiums: 0
Stage wins: 0
Championship position: 1st in WRC2

Impressive performances to win the WRC2 title (in addition to his European Rally Championship title) earned Andreas Mikkelsen a spot in Autosport's top 10.

The three-time WRC rally winner couldn’t have done much more to impress former employer Hyundai, Toyota and M-Sport as he seeks his return to the big time, having last fought for outright honours with the South Korean marque in 2019.

The Toksport WRT Skoda driver edged another former WRC full-timer, TRT Citroen's Mads Ostberg, to the WRC2 title after a tense, year-long fight. The pair were only pitched against one another three times all year, Ostberg winning out when they faced off in Croatia (Mikkelsen ending up 39 minutes down in fourth after suffering a broken suspension arm on Stage 2) but Mikkelsen prevailed in a head-to-head on the fast Estonian gravel and the rocky Acropolis stages, where Ostberg's failure to score (before a puncture proved costly on Friday at the penultimate round in Spain) clinched the title for Mikkelsen with a round to spare.

The Norwegian could do no more in his dual campaign - also winning twice on his way to the ERC crown - and is unlucky not to have a full-time WRC drive in 2022.

6. Craig Breen

Impressive drives in the third Hyundai earned Breen a 2022 M-Sport seat

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Wins: 0 (best finish 2nd)
Podiums: 3
Stage wins: 8
Championship position: 8th

Craig Breen produced the best form of his career in 2021, resulting in three podiums from the five events he contested in the third Hyundai. The outstanding strike rate was made even more impressive considering the limited time he had in the car he shared with Dani Sordo.

The Irishman claimed back-to-back second pace finishes in Estonia and Belgium, showing consistent raw pace to challenge his more experienced team-mates and rivals. He finished every event he started inside the top eight, bagging eight stage wins on the way. A first full-time WRC campaign in 2022 was his rightful reward, Breen signing a two-year deal with M-Sport Ford.

Sordo is unlucky to miss out on the top 10 after back-to-back podiums in the final two events, scoring 14 stages wins from his seven rallies. But errors while fighting for a likely podium in Sardinia and on the Safari count against him.

5. Ott Tanak

Arctic Rally Finland win was a rare bright spot in a tough year for Tanak

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

Wins: 1 (Arctic Rally Finland)
Podiums: 4
Stage wins: 49
Championship position: 5th

There remain no questions marks over the 2019 champion’s speed, as Tanak won more stages than any of his rivals this season, but he didn’t enjoy the success his pace deserved.

The Estonian was let down by the fast-but-fragile i20's poor reliability issues, but made some unforced errors of his own too - retiring from the Monte after depleting his limited supply of tyres further by damaging one on a stone, and hitting a tree stump in Spain.

Tanak should have won in Portugal and Sardinia, where he held comfortable leads, but suspension failures struck. He was also a favourite to repeat his 2020 victory on home soil in Estonia, until more punctures put him out of the event. But when everything clicked Tanak was devastating, and he showed his frightening best by winning in Arctic Rally Finland.

By his own very high standards, it was a frustrating season that never got going. In a year to forget, he missed the final round of the season due to personal reasons. Tanak will be hoping that a clean slate for 2022 with a new car and the onset of Rally1 hybrid regulations will allow him to return to his very best.

4. Thierry Neuville

Neuville lead Hyundai's charge with two wins, but they came too late to turn the tide after a wave of mechanical failures

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Wins: 2 (Belgium, Spain)
Podiums: 7
Stage wins: 44
Championship position: 3rd

Had reliability issues not robbed of him of likely victories or podiums in Kenya, Portugal and Greece, Neuville could have challenged Sebastien Ogier for the title. It was hard to fault the Belgian's driving in 2021 - perhaps his only blemish was an error in Portugal, while leading, that contributed to his suspension failure.

Like his team-mate Ott Tanak, when his fast i20 was firing on all cylinders and had its suspension intact, Neuville and new co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were at times untouchable. The pair quickly gelled to become a force and they came so close to a memorable win in Kenya, before the car suffered a rear suspension failure on the final morning. Victory there could have changed the course of the title race, although a power steering failure in Greece ultimately ended his title hopes for good.

His season had started promisingly, with five third place finishes from the first seven events, but Neuville did go on to score two comfortable wins. He dominated on home soil in Ypres Rally Belgium, winning by over half a minute, and also drove brilliantly in Spain to defeat his team-mate and local favourite Dani Sordo.

3. Kalle Rovanpera

Rovanpera became the WRC's youngest-ever winner in Estonia, but his Acropolis win was even better

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Wins: 2 (Estonia, Acropolis)
Podiums: 4
Stage wins: 22
Championship position: 4th

The odds on Kalle Rovanpera becoming the youngest-ever WRC champion are much shorter after a breakthrough 2021 campaign. The son of former WRC winner Harri Rovanpera has long been billed as rallying's next big thing, and this year supplied the proof to back up the expectation.

The 21-year-old briefly led the championship and became the youngest-ever WRC winner. The Toyota driver achieved that milestone by winning comfortably in Estonia, but he saved his best drive of the year for the Acropolis, where he blitzed the field on his first attempt at the event.

Consistency remains an area for improvement, but the skills shown this season were beyond his tender years - and Rovanpera still has plenty of time on his side to eclipse the youngest champion record set by a 27-year-old Colin McRae in 1995.

Rovanpera not only proved he has the pace to win, but played a key role in helping Toyota seal the manufacturers’ crown. With team-mate Sebastien Ogier not participating in the full 2022 championship, Rovanpera will surely be one to watch next year.

2. Elfyn Evans

Storming win in Finland revitalised Evans' title hopes

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Wins: 2 (Portugal, Finland)
Podiums: 7
Stage wins: 36
Championship position: 2nd

Elfyn Evans reached a new level in 2021 and for the second straight year pushed Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier all the way to a title decider at Rally Monza. But unlike in 2020, where he led into the seventh and final round in a COVID-shortened year, after Ogier had been denied a strong finish in Turkey by an engine failure, this time Evans took the fight to Ogier over a conventional season that showed his progression as one of the WRC's elite drivers.

The Welshman managed to reel in Ogier’s 44-point lead with a strong second half of the campaign, which included arguably his greatest drive to date as he stunned rivals with a dominant victory on Rally Finland. Evans became only the second British winner, after Kris Meeke, of an event which has been dominated by Scandinavians across its 70-year history.

But perhaps the most significant performance in Evans' title tilt came under pressure as the title race began to heat up, with a gutsy drive to second in Spain keeping his championship hopes alive to Monza, where 17 points separated him from Ogier. There, the lead changed hands six times, Ogier having to pull out all the stops to beat Evans to a victory that secured the title.

Had it not been for an error in Kenya and a gearbox issue in Greece, Evans might have celebrated a famous maiden title. Having lost the title to Ogier for two years in succession, Evans will be among the favourites next year when his team-mate is only contesting a part season.

1. Sebastian Ogier

Ogier and co-driver Ingrassia bowed out with an eighth title

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Wins: 5 (Monte Carlo, Croatia, Italy, Kenya, Monza)
Podiums: 7
Stage wins: 43
Championship position: 1st

Once again, Sebastien Ogier turned winning a WRC title into an art form as he was crowned for an eighth time, cementing his status as a rallying legend in his final full-time season.

It might not have been his most convincing year as Ogier engaged a conservative mindset for the second half of the year to defend his massive points lead, but his consistency cannot be questioned. The Frenchman finished inside the top five in all bar one event, a crash into a snow bank on the Arctic Rally Finland his only on-stage blemish.

Ogier won four of the first six rallies to surge into a commanding lead by the season's halfway point. His campaign started with a come from behind win to claim a record breaking eighth Monte Carlo Rally win. He then repeated the trick to snatch victory from Elfyn Evans on the final stage of Rally Croatia by 0.6s, the third closest finish in history. The 37-year-old was there when it mattered, picking up the spoils in Sardinia and Kenya where Hyundai threw away leads.

Ogier admitted he drove too carefully in the second half of the year, which allowed a hard charging Evans to apply serious pressure on the title race. However, he once again showed his class to defeat Evans after a frenetic Rally Monza battle, to draw the curtain down on his enormously successful partnership with co-driver Julien Ingrassia in style.

In the eyes of many, Ogier is the WRC’s greatest of all time. As he heads into into semi-retirement next year, the floor is open for his successor to stamp their authority on the series in the way he has done so emphatically over the past decade.

Ogier won out in thrilling battle with Evans for victory in the Monza finale to secure the title in style

Photo by: Toyota Racing