The top 10 WRC drivers of 2020

Even before the pandemic, the 2020 World Rally Championship had a very different look and feel compared with 2019, not least because the defending champion's first name was not Sebastien. The last time that such a thing happened was way back in 2003.

Ott Tanak had claimed the title on behalf of all non-Sebastiens at the wheel of a Toyota Yaris in 2019 but, when he returned to action three months later, it was at the wheel of a Hyundai i20.

Toyota was meanwhile able to secure itself a Sebastien: six-time champion Ogier, whose return to Citroen in 2019 had brought about the end of his unbroken run of titles. The Frenchman would be joined by reliable British points-scorer Elfyn Evans and the stellar teenage talents of Kalle Rovanpera.

Hyundai celebrated its first manufacturers' championship in 2019, then team boss Andrea Adamo decided to shake things up when he brought Tanak into the fold alongside established team-leader Thierry Neuville, the only Hyundai driver to have contested every WRC event since the Korean brand returned in 2014.

Despite almost winning the 2019 drivers' title himself, Neuville had not had a permanent partner to be measured against since Andreas Mikkelsen in 2018. Hyundai's third car was to be shared between Dani Sordo, Craig Breen and nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb.

Completing the entry for 2020 were the M-Sport Ford Fiestas. Esapekka Lappi pulled from the wreckage of Citroen's WRC implosion, joining Teemu Suninen with Gus Greensmith taking the third car in a reduced line-up over previous years.

Seven rounds of the championship were played out, and here's how Autosport has ranked its top 10 drivers of the 2020 season.

10. Teemu Suninen

Championship position: 7th
Rally/stage wins: 0/1

M-Sport's two Finns, Suninen and Lappi, were all-but inseparable in terms of pace and equally bewildered by what fate was handing out to their team at times. Unlike the works outfits, which have their funding agreed far in advance, M-Sport relies on the sport itself to derive its income at national and international level.

When COVID silenced rally cars around the world, it left the team in peril and its drivers keenly feeling the lack of testing and development available to the Fiesta WRCs. In the end, Lappi seemed more fragile while Suninen just dug his chin into his chest and carried on.

The widening gulf was dispiriting but the fury of Suninen's battle with Tanak in Mexico and the invaluable points he brought in Estonia and Sardinia gave his team invaluable hope.

9. Oliver Solberg

Championship position: 4th (WRC3)
Rally/stage wins: 1/22

If it seems premature to put a 19-year-old WRC3 driver in the top 10 overall, don't worry - his first movie is already 18 months old, so Autosport cannot be accused of jumping the gun here! And it has to be noted that Solberg Jr, son of 2003 WRC champion Petter, is already a frequenter of the top 10 overall leaderboard.

Such stage management of his career as the movie, or the 2019 father-son tour crowned by dominating the Goodwood Festival of Speed, can seem obtrusive at times. But while few rallying fathers can push their offspring forward better than Petter, the younger Solberg has consistently delivered on his own merits.

Affable and engaging out of the car, he is exactly the sort of personality that rallying needs in uncertain times. A Hyundai WRC2 programme awaits in 2021, from which the prospect of Solberg vs. Rovanpera in the top class through to 2030 and beyond is one to relish.

8. Mads Ostberg

Championship position: 1st (WRC2)
Rally/stage wins: 4/25

The battle for honours in WRC2 epitomised the biggest problem with top flight rallying at the present time in that neither the champion, Ostberg, or runner-up Pontus Tidemand should be there.

Both are established WRC runners with the pace and experience to do any works drive justice, but with no drives available they opted to drop down the ladder. In Ostberg's case, the story has been like this since 2017, which makes his world championship title all the sweeter.

In truth, WRC2 was the least spectacular category at each round of this season, with Ostberg only losing one round at which he was in attendance.

Both his Citroen and Tidemand's Skoda enjoyed factory support, but only Ostberg's car had a reassuring amount of sponsorship on there to cover costs like development parts and damage. Nevertheless, the Norwegian's ability to coax everything that he needed to from the Citroen showed that he has lost none of his polish.

7. Craig Breen

Championship position: 9th
Rally/stage wins: 0/2

"The car is just giving me so much confidence this weekend, I feel like I've started my career all over again." Estonia saw the perennially overlooked Irishman receive one of those longed-for breaks that can define an athlete's career in any discipline.

Driving the third car for any team is not what a driver of Breen's calibre deserves on merit, but all too often in the past poor luck has dogged him and denied him the chance to show what he is truly capable of.

There was considerable hoo-ha after Breen was announced as Sebastien Loeb's replacement for Sweden, after the latter's unspectacular showing in Monte Carlo. That Breen was no more spectacular himself no doubt caused some sleepless nights.

Nevertheless, when the WRC returned to action in Estonia, he was the right man to deliver manufacturer points. With Loeb now stepping down from WRC duty, Breen will be rewarded with more outings in 2021 and deservedly so.

6. Kalle Rovanpera

Championship position: 5th
Rally/stage wins: 0/6

There is nothing better than watching someone doing what they love to do and doing it very well indeed. Rovanpera's eagerness to take on every aspect of life in the WRC, from the fun bits on the stages to hanging around until the bitter end of a media session was inspiring.

For a learning year, the 20-year-old Finn's season was sensational and while he was lucky to walk away from his Sardinia accident, even this experience will be carefully logged.

On the one event at which Rovanpera had a decent level of prior knowledge, Rally Estonia, he managed to tie with team-mate Ogier for the most stage wins on the event. Were it not for a time penalty, he would have split the victorious Hyundais and kept himself in the title race to the end.

Ogier needs to be on his mettle in 2021, and Rovanpera should take full advantage of watching the maestro at close quarters because he has built big expectations from now on.

5. Ott Tanak

Championship position: 3rd
Rally/Stage wins: 1/12

It seems harsh to put the defending champion below a team-mate who only started three rallies, but there are mitigating circumstances. We don't yet know the potential of Tanak at Hyundai, because COVID-19 robbed him of the opportunity to build relationships with the team and his understanding of the i20.

Hyundai made some curious tyre choices at times, and its drivers were more vocal about having to effect set-up changes than their rivals at Toyota. These are areas in which a settled partnership and better understanding will only improve matters in 2021.

Perhaps this above all else is what pegged back Tanak's tally of stage wins in comparison with Neuville, and only just kept him in front of Sordo, who started fewer than half as many events.

For all that, though, his victory in Estonia was euphoric, and must rank as undoubtedly the highlight of the season in terms of what it meant to both Tanak and the WRC to be back in action.

4. Dani Sordo

Championship position: 8th
Rally/stage wins: 1/11

It is impossible to overstate the importance of Sordo's role towards getting the manufacturers' title in the bag for Hyundai in 2020. Team leadership, such as was thrust upon him in the Mini days, never really sat easily. Instead, the 37-year-old is a team player whose love of the sport, whether on gravel or asphalt, is seemingly brought into sharpest focus by contributing towards bigger goals than his own.

Rallying is a religion in Spain, and Sordo is ever-present around the sport in his native country. The adoration of his countrymen is well founded, for in just three appearances during 2020, Sordo won 11 stages and one event outright.

That victory in Sardinia was from the top drawer, all the more so as it came after upsetting news of the death of his compatriot Laura Salvo on a rally in Portugal. Sordo returned in Monza and his battle with Ogier delivered the biggest highlight of the WRC's muddy final round.

3. Elfyn Evans

Championship position: 2nd
Rally/stage wins: 2/14

After six seasons in the top flight, it would be wrong to call Evans an overnight sensation. Nevertheless, his rise to the top of the WRC points table in 2020 was not a prediction that many would have made when he joined Toyota.

Clearly gelling with the Yaris WRC and his new surroundings, Evans's pace in Monte Carlo gave Ogier and Neuville pause for thought. Then in Sweden he and co-driver Scott Martin owned the changeable conditions in a way that none of the other crews could match.

Another win came in Turkey, albeit from playing it safe amid the dramas that befell others, which propelled him back to the championship lead and the cancellation of Rally Ypres kept him there. The disappointment of crashing out of Rally Monza will sting, but it is clear that Evans can summon up steel when required and in 2021 he gets to do it all again with valuable lessons learned.

2. Thierry Neuville

Championship position: 4th
Rally/stage wins: 1/28

Whether it's his powerstage prowess, his mission to donate to local causes at each rally or the gleeful way that he just blurts out what he's thinking in the service park, Neuville illuminates the WRC.

A total of 28 stage wins eclipsed everyone else in the field despite being forced to sit out much of Monza. But at the same time, nobody else is so clearly working without a safety net, all too often resulting in broken suspension, punctures and drama this year.

Nobody feels the emotional rollercoaster of emotions more keenly than his Hyundai team, but Neuville did at least keep his place in the pecking order this year, despite the arrival of Tanak. The Estonian will be a tougher proposition in 2021, which means that Neuville will need to up his game further and reel in his penchant for pushing the envelope.

1. Sebastien Ogier

Championship position: 1st
Rally/stage wins: 2/26

It must at some level be rather depressing for Ogier's pursuers to know that only a car as poor as the Citroen's C3 WRC can make the Frenchman beatable.

Although he didn't achieve 'peak Ogier' in his first two events with Toyota, 2020 got off to a solid start in terms of points and he was right on the pace from the very first stage in Monte Carlo.

Neuville drove the rally of his life to win the Monte, but from Sweden onwards Ogier's nearest challenger was his team-mate Evans: a man who has been studying his consistent approach for season after season and learning diligently.

The difference between the two is Ogier's killer instinct, personified in Mexico, of knowing when to push the limits for the minimum period required before settling back into a rhythm. Simply brilliant.