2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge

The 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge was the fifth season of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The season consisted of twelve rounds and started on 19 January with the Monte Carlo Rally. The season ended on November 6, at the Cyprus Rally.

Juho Hänninen became the drivers' champion after winning Rally Scotland, the third of his rally wins during the season. Hänninen also won in Argentina and Sardinia as he finished on the podium in ten of the eleven events that he contested during the season, of which three wins and four second places counted towards the championship's best seven scores rule. Škoda Motorsport team-mate Jan Kopecký finished in second place, some 18 points behind Hänninen. Although not as consistent as his team-mate, Kopecký won one event during the season, winning in the Canary Islands.

Third place was claimed by the top Peugeot driver and reigning champion Kris Meeke, after a third place in Scotland took him ahead of Freddy Loix. Meeke's season was blighted by errors of which retiring from five of the eleven events he contested but did take a win in Brazil. Despite taking part in four rallies, Loix's tarmac expertise shone through, winning the events in Ypres, Belgium, Madeira and the Czech Republic as well as a third place in Sanremo. Four other drivers took victories during the season; World Rally Championship front-runner Mikko Hirvonen won a one-off outing in Monte Carlo, Bruno Magalhães took his first IRC win in the Azores, Paolo Andreucci won in Sanremo and Nasser Al-Attiyah won in Cyprus when many of the leading contenders skipped the event. Škoda took the manufacturers' championship after the Barum Rally Zlín in the Czech Republic.

Calendar

Rd.	Start date	Finish date	Rally	Rally headquarters	Surface	Stages	Distance
1	19 January	23 January	78th Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo	Valence, Drôme	Mixed	14	396.18 km
2	4 March	6 March	30th Rally Internacional de Curitiba	Curitiba, Paraná	Gravel	15	216.93 km
3	19 March	21 March	30th Rally Argentina	Carlos Paz, Córdoba	Gravel	15	231.45 km
4	29 April	1 May	34th Rally Islas Canarias - El Corte Inglés	Las Palmas, Gran Canaria	Asphalt	15	221.59 km
5	4 June	6 June	7th Rally d'Italia Sardegna	Olbia, Sardinia	Gravel	13	218.70 km
6	24 June	26 June	46th Belgium Geko Ypres Rally	Ypres, West Flanders	Asphalt	19	293.62 km
7	15 July	17 July	45th SATA Rallye Açores	Ponta Delgada, Azores	Gravel	19	226.32 km
8	5 August	8 August	51st Rali Vinho da Madeira	Funchal, Madeira	Asphalt	21	298.20 km
9	27 August	29 August	40th Barum Rally Zlín	Zlín, Zlín Region	Asphalt	17	265.26 km
C	9 September	11 September	47th Rally Principe de Asturias	Oviedo, Asturias	Asphalt	13	256.14 km
10	23 September	25 September	52nd Rallye Sanremo	Sanremo, Liguria	Asphalt	11	220.03 km
11	15 October	17 October	2nd Rally of Scotland	Perth, Scotland	Gravel	12	196.92 km
12	4 November	6 November	39th FxPro Cyprus Rally	Limassol	Gravel	14	229.34 km
Sources:^[1]^[2]

The calendar consisted of twelve events run on two continents. Changes for 2010 season included the replacement of Rally Russia, Rally Japan and the Safari Rally with Rally Argentina, Rally d'Italia Sardegna and Cyprus Rally. In March it was announced that the Rally Islas Canarias would replace the Rally Principe de Asturias as the Spanish round on the schedule, moving from September to April.

Selected entries

M-Sport (Ford) and Subaru became the latest registered manufacturers to join the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, alongside Abarth (Fiat), Honda, Ralliart (Mitsubishi), Peugeot, Proton and Škoda.

Entrant	Manufacturer^[3]	Car	Driver	Co-driver	Tyres	Rounds
Peugeot UK^[4]	Peugeot	Peugeot 207 S2000	Kris Meeke	Paul Nagle	BF	1–11
Peugeot France			Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	BF	1
			Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	P	5
			Stéphane Sarrazin	Jacques-Julien Renucci	BF	1, 6
			Bryan Bouffier	Xavier Panseri	BF	9–10
Peugeot Sport Portugal^[4]			Bruno Magalhães	Carlos Magalhães	BF	1–8, 10
Interwetten Racing			Franz Wittmann	Klaus Wicha	BF	1, 4–5, 9
			Franz Wittmann	Josefine Beinke		12
			Bryan Bouffier	Xavier Panseri		12
Kimera Motorsport			Luca Betti	Alessandro Mattioda	BF	1
Kimera Motorsport			Luca Betti	Pierangelo Scalvini	BF	5
Stohl Racing^[5]			Daniel Oliveira	Carlos del Barrio	BF	1, 3–4, 6–10
				Denis Giraudet		2
				Armando Miranda		11–12
Peugeot Team Belux			Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Klinger	BF	4–6, 9–11
Peugeot Team Belux			Pieter Tsjoen	Eddy Chevaillier	BF	6
Yazeed Al Rajhi Team			Yazeed Al Rajhi	Matthieu Baumel	BF	5
F.P.F. Sport SRL			Paolo Andreucci	Anna Andreussi	P	5, 10
Peugeot Team Turkey			Burcu Çetinkaya	Çiçek Güney	Y	5–12
Bluthunder Racing Italy			Corrado Fontana	Nicola Arena	P	6, 8–9
Bluthunder Racing Italy			Luigi Fontana	Renzo Casazza	P	8
Duindistel			Patrick Snijers	Cindy Cokelaere	BF	6
			Dominique Bruyneel	Lara Vanneste		6, 8
			Dominique Bruyneel	Jean-Charles Descamps		9
Amarante Rally Team			Vítor Pascoal	Mário Castro	P	7–8
Power Car Team			Marco Tempestini	Dorin Pulpea	P	8
Team C.D. Nacional da Madeira			Miguel Nunes	Victor Calado	BF	8
Nicos Thomas Racing			Nicos Thomas	Angelos Loizides	BF	12
M-Sport Ltd.	M-Sport	Ford Fiesta S2000	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	P	1
			Julien Maurin	Gilles Thimonier	P	1
			Andreas Mikkelsen	Ola Fløene	H	5–7, 9–12
Munchi's Ford World Rally Team			Federico Villagra	Jorge Pérez Companc	P	3
ESC. Ourense			Sergio Vallejo	Diego Vallejo	P	4
Cersanit Rally Team			Michał Sołowow	Maciek Baran	P	6
Team Ford Quinta do Lorde			Bernardo Sousa	Nuno Rodrigues da Silva	P	7–8
RMC Motorsport			Miguel Campos	Aloisio Monteiro	BF	8
Czech Ford Rally Team			Jaromír Tarabus	Daniel Trunkát	BF	9, 12
Czech Ford Rally Team			Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	P	12
Car Racing			Umberto Scandola	Guido D'Amore	BF	10
Barwa Rally Team			Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	P	12
Škoda Motorsport	Škoda	Škoda Fabia S2000	Jan Kopecký	Petr Starý	BF	1–10
			Juho Hänninen	Mikko Markkula		1–11
			Nicolas Vouilloz	Benjamin Veillas		1
			Freddy Loix	Frédéric Miclotte		6, 8–10
Škoda UK			Guy Wilks	Phil Pugh	BF	1–5, 9–11
Barwa Rally Team			Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	P	3
B9 Racing			Alberto Hevia	Alberto Iglesias	BF	4
René Georges Rally Sport			Bernd Casier	Francis Caesemaeker	BF	6
Škoda Delimax Czech National Team			Pavel Valoušek	Zdeněk Hrůza	BF	9
Mogul Racing Team			Roman Kresta	Petr Gross	BF	9
Motortune Racing			Roger Feghali	Joseph Matar	BF	12
Astra Racing	Abarth	Abarth Grande Punto S2000	Toni Gardemeister	Tomi Tuominen	BF	1
Procar			Luca Rossetti	Matteo Chiarcossi	BF	8
Abarth & C. Spa			Luca Rossetti	Matteo Chiarcossi		10
Abarth & C. Spa			Giandomenico Basso	Mitia Dotta		10
Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Subaru	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	Bryan Bouffier	Xavier Panseri	BF	1
Barattero			Gabriel Pozzo	Daniel Stillo	P	3
Barattero			Claudio Menzi	Diego Cagnotti	P	3
Motoring Club			Teemu Arminen	Tuomo Nikkola	BF	5
WAR Racing			Luigi Ricci	Christine Pfister	Y	5
Subaru Team Arai			Toshihiro Arai	Daniel Barritt	P	6
Intercontinental Motul	Ralliart	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	Oswaldo Scheer	Gilvan Jablonski	Y	2
			Oswaldo Scheer	Sidinei Bröering		3
			Eduardo Scheer	Geferson Pavinatto		2–3
Tango Rally Team			Federico Bassi	Jorge García Quiroga	BF	3
			Agustín Elvíra	Oscar Tagle		3
			Agustín Rossi	Leonardo Suaya		3
			Gonzalo Monarca	Laureano Grigera		3
Team Além Mar			Ricardo Moura	Sancho Eiró	BF	7
Team Além Mar			Ricardo Moura	António Costa	BF	8
EuroOil Čepro Czech National Team			Václav Pech	Petr Uhel	BF	9
Advan-Piaa Rally Team			Fumio Nutahara	Hakaru Ichino	Y	9
DGM Sport			Jonathan Greer	Dai Roberts	P	11
David Bogie Rallying			David Bogie	Kevin Rae	P	11
Kresta Racing			Roman Kresta	Petr Gross	P/H	12
Tango Rally Team		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	Nicolas Madero	Guillermo Piazzano	BF	3
			Marcos Ligato	Rubén García		3
			Luciano Bernardi	Fabian Cretu		3
			Alejandro Cancio	Santiego García		3
			Juan Jose Gil de Marchi	Mauro Albornoz		3
Escudería GPR Sport			Rubén Gracia	Diego Sanjuan	BF	4
JRM Engineering			Per-Gunnar Andersson	Anders Fredriksson	P	5
Heuvel Motorsport			Jasper ven den Heuvel	Martine Kolman	P	6
Proton R3 Malaysia Rally Team	Proton	Proton Satria Neo S2000	Chris Atkinson	Stéphane Prévot	BF	6–7
			Alister McRae	Bill Hayes		6–7, 11
			Tom Cave	Craig Parry		6–7, 11
			Niall McShea	Marshall Clarke		9–10
			Keith Cronin	Barry McNulty		9, 11
			Gilles Panizzi	Freddy Delorme		10
Catwees Honda Racing	Honda	Honda Civic Type-R R3	Siim Plangi	Marek Sarapuu	BF	9, 11

Results

Round	Rally name	Podium finishers
Round	Rally name	Rank	Driver	Car	Time
1	/ Monte Carlo Rally (January 19–23) — Results and report	1	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Fiesta S2000	4:32:58.5
		2	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	4:34:49.9
		3	Nicolas Vouilloz	Škoda Fabia S2000	4:36:17.6

2	Rally Internacional de Curitiba (March 4–6) — Results and report	1	Kris Meeke	Peugeot 207 S2000	1:42:45.4
		2	Guy Wilks	Škoda Fabia S2000	1:43:32.1
		3	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	1:44:05.6

3	Rally Argentina (March 19–21) — Results and report	1	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:30:38.1
		2	Guy Wilks	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:31:29.1
		3	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:32:58.2

4	Rally Islas Canarias (April 29 – May 1) — Results and report	1	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:12:27.4
		2	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:12:36.5
		3	Guy Wilks	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:13:03.8

5	Rally d'Italia Sardegna (June 4–6) — Results and report	1	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:31:28.6
		2	Paolo Andreucci	Peugeot 207 S2000	2:32:04.2
		3	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:32:06.8

6	Ypres Rally (June 24–26) — Results and report	1	Freddy Loix	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:35:36.9
		2	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:35:58.3
		3	Thierry Neuville	Peugeot 207 S2000	2:37:42.4

7	Rallye Açores (July 15–17) — Results and report	1	Bruno Magalhães	Peugeot 207 S2000	2:34:00.4
		2	Kris Meeke	Peugeot 207 S2000	2:35:00.5
		3	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:35:21.1

8	Rali Vinho da Madeira (August 5–7) — Results and report	1	Freddy Loix	Škoda Fabia S2000	3:08:14.3
		2	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	3:08:52.1
		3	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	3:10:40.1

9	Barum Czech Rally Zlín (August 27–29) — Results and report	1	Freddy Loix	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:31:31.0
		2	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:31:56.0
		3	Pavel Valoušek	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:32:51.2

10	Rallye Sanremo (September 23–25) — Results and report	1	Paolo Andreucci	Peugeot 207 S2000	2:35:32.7
		2	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:35:37.1
		3	Freddy Loix	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:36:06.8

11	Rally Scotland (October 15–17) — Results and report	1	Juho Hänninen	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:01:07.4
		2	Andreas Mikkelsen	Ford Fiesta S2000	2:01:32.9
		3	Kris Meeke	Peugeot 207 S2000	2:04:31.6

12	Cyprus Rally (November 4–6) — Results and report	1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Ford Fiesta S2000	3:11:53.5
		2	Roger Feghali	Škoda Fabia S2000	3:12:24.2
		3	Martin Prokop	Ford Fiesta S2000	3:16:35.5

Standings

Drivers

Only the best seven scores from each driver counted towards the championship.

Pos	Driver	MON	CUR	ARG	CAN	SAR	YPR	AZO	MAD	ZLI	SAN	SCO	CYP	T. Pts	Drop	Pts
1	Juho Hänninen	2	3	1	2	1	Ret	3	3	2	2	1		80	18	62
2	Jan Kopecký	5	4	3	1	3	2	Ret	2	Ret	6			50	3	47
3	Kris Meeke	Ret	1	Ret	4	Ret	Ret	2	Ret	4	4	3		39		39
4	Freddy Loix						1		1	1	3			36		36
5	Bruno Magalhães	7	5	6	5	5	6	1	Ret		10			30		30
6	Guy Wilks	6	2	2	3	Ret				7	Ret	Ret		27		27
7	Andreas Mikkelsen					Ret	5	4		5	Ret	2	Ret	21		21
8	Paolo Andreucci					2					1			18		18
9	Thierry Neuville				Ret	4	3			Ret	8	Ret		12		12
10	Nasser Al-Attiyah			Ret									1	10		10
11	Mikko Hirvonen	1												10		10
12	Roger Feghali												2	8		8
13	Martin Prokop												3	6		6
14	Pavel Valoušek									3				6		6
15	Nicolas Vouilloz	3												6		6
16	Jaromír Tarabus									8			4	6		6
17	Stéphane Sarrazin	4					Ret							5		5
18	David Bogie											4		5		5
19	Bernd Casier						4							5		5
20	Miguel Nunes								4					5		5
21	Gabriel Pozzo			4										5		5
22	Ricardo Moura							5	10					4		4
23	Luca Rossetti								Ret		5			4		4
24	Vítor Sá								5					4		4
25	Nicos Thomas												5	4		4
26	Federico Villagra			5										4		4
27	Siim Plangi									Ret		6		4		4
28	Vítor Pascoal							6	18					3		3
29	Roman Kresta									Ret			6	3		3
30	Eduardo Scheer		6	Ret										3		3
31	Teemu Arminen					6								3		3
32	Filipe Freitas								6					3		3
33	Alberto Hevia				6									3		3
34	Václav Pech									6				3		3
35	Eamonn Boland	19										7		3		3
36	Daniel Oliveira	20	7	Ret	Ret		Ret		21	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	2		2
37	Giandomenico Basso										7			2		2
38	Nicolás Madero			7										2		2
39	João Magalhães								7					2		2
40	Luigi Ricci					7								2		2
41	Michał Sołowow						7							2		2
42	Charalambos Timotheou												7	2		2
43	Pedro Vale							7						2		2
44	Burcu Çetinkaya					Ret	Ret		19	44	38	8	15	2		2
45	Ruben Gracia				12									2		2
46	Daniele Batistini					8								1		1
47	Luca Betti	Ret					8							1		1
48	Diego Domínguez			8										1		1
49	Sérgio Silva							8						1		1
50	Constantinos Tingirides												8	1		1
51	Jean-Sébastien Vigion	8												1		1
52	Harry Hunt	34				12	Ret			49	48	9	19	1		1
53	Pedro Peres								9					1		1
54	Marcos Tokarski		11											1		1
55	Sergio Vallejo				13									1		1
Pos	Driver	MON	CUR	ARG	CAN	SAR	YPR	AZO	MAD	ZLI	SAN	SCO	CYP	T. Pts	Drop	Pts

Key
Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	2nd place
Bronze	3rd place
Green	Points finish
Blue	Non-points finish
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Did not finish (Ret)
Black	Excluded (EX)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
White	Cancelled (C)
Blank	Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Manufacturers

Only the best seven scores from each manufacturer counted towards the championship.

Pos	Manufacturer	MON	CUR	ARG	CAN	SAR	YPR	AZO	MAD	ZLI	SAN	SCO	CYP	T. Pts	Drop	Pts
1	Škoda	14	14	18	18	16	18	6	18	18	14	10	8	172	52	120
2	Peugeot	7	14	3	9	13	9	18	9	5	15	8	4	114	27	87
3	M-Sport	10	0	4	1	0	6	5	0	5	0	9	16	56	1	55
4	Ralliart	0	3	3	2	0	0	6	5	3	0	8	5	35	2	33
5	Subaru	0	0	5	0	5	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	11		11
6	Abarth	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	6		6
Pos	Manufacturer	MON	CUR	ARG	CAN	SAR	YPR	AZO	MAD	ZLI	SAN	SCO	CYP	T. Pts	Drop	Pts

References

^ "IRC 2010 calendar". eWRC. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
^ Evans, David. "IRC reveals 2010 calendar". Autosport. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
^ "Manufacturers". ircseries.com. Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
^ ^a ^b "78e Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo 2010" (PDF). Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Monte Carlo Rally. 2010-01-11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-02-14. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
^ "Eight IRC events for young Brazilian Oliveira". ircseries.com. Intercontinental Rally Challenge. 2010-01-19. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-03-03.

External links

The official website of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge

[1] "IRC 2010 calendar". eWRC. Retrieved 2 April 2025.

[2] Evans, David. "IRC reveals 2010 calendar". Autosport. Retrieved 2 April 2025.

[3] "Manufacturers". ircseries.com. Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-01-23.

[Monte-4] "78e Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo 2010" (PDF). Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Monte Carlo Rally. 2010-01-11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-02-14. Retrieved 2010-01-16.

[5] "Eight IRC events for young Brazilian Oliveira". ircseries.com. Intercontinental Rally Challenge. 2010-01-19. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-03-03.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]