- 20 - 23 April 2023
- Service Park : Zagreb
- Total distance - 1650kms
- Rally Croatia Stage Maps
- https://rally-croatia.com/
- Stage distance - 301Kms
1 – Elfyn Evans 2 – Ott Tanak 3 – Esapekka Lappi
1 – Yohan Rossel
2 – Nikolay Gryazin
3 – Oliver Solberg
Croatia Rally 2023 Summary
Rally Croatia was new to the WRC calendar in 2021. It’s first running in 2021 saw Sebastian Ogier win by just 0.6 seconds, the 3rd closest in the World Rally Championships history, after Elfyn Evan slid wide on the last corner.
The rally is a sealed surface event, however, the roads change from smooth fast asphalt to broken roads. The roads can prove very slippy even in the dry.
The service park is based at the Zagreb Fair, an exhibition centre in the south of the city.
Rally Croatia 2023 Review
Rally Croatia 2023 was marred in tragedy a week before it was due to start with Craig Breen dying in an accident during testing for the event when his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid went of the road on a relatively slow right hand corner.
However despite this the teams and organisers of the event put on a fantastic event, with everyone honoring Craig in their own way. Hyundai ran a special livery on both its i20 N cars and all three teams nominated only 2 cars for points in solidarity with Hyundai.
Friday started out with a charge from Ogier and Rovanpera, but both hit the same pothole and had to stop and change tyres. By the end of the day Thierry Neuville was leading the rally with Evans hot on his heals, trailing by only 5.7 seconds. On saturday morning however, Neuville misjudged a 3rd gear right hand corner and damaged his left rear suspension, putting him out of the rally and Evans into the lead.
Tanak wasn’t going to make it easy for Evans though and chased him down all the way through saturdays stages closing the gap to 12.5 seconds, only to be hit with a transmission issue and handbrake problems leading to him dropping just under 13 seconds on the days final 2 stages.
On Sunday Evans was able to control the lead and take an emotional win with Tanak second and Lappi in 3rd. Starting first on the road on Saturday Rovenpara was able to take 4th place from Ogier on Sunday morning leaving Ogier in 5th. The pair took 6 and 7 stage wins respectively.
Getting to Rally Croatia
Franjo Tudman Airport 15 kms southeast of Zagreb is the nearest airport. This newly built airport is well serviced by many airlines, although it tends to be from the larger airports.
Rally Tickets
Tickets for WRC Rally Croatia now from the events official ticket web shop. There are 3 different price options, however all 3 give access to the same areas.
Rally passess provide access to the fan zones on many of the stages, providing safe viewing and facilites, access to the service park and parking at the service park.
The ticket options are as follows.
1) There is a special offer for the first 200 customers of 55 Euros. This includes a limited edition t-shirt designed by Jan Hrnjak.
2) The rally pass for all 4 days access to the rally without the t-shirt is 30 Euros.
3) Pay each day for a day pass at 10 Euros / day.
Schedule
| 9.01 | Shakedown Okić |
| 18.30 | Ceremonial Start – Zagrebačke fontane / Zagreb Fountains |
| 7.08 | Trakošćan – Vrbno 1 |
| 8.35 | Zagorska Sela – Kumrovec 1 (Live TV) |
| 10.23 | Trakošćan – Vrbno 2 |
| 13.15 | Zagorska Sela – Kumrovec 2 (Wolf Power Stage) |
| 15.30 | Podium – Servisni park / Service Park |
1
Rally Croatia Map
The map ID you have entered does not exist. Please enter a map ID that exists.
