2010 Ford Focus RS WRC Edition BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally

2010 Ford Focus RS WRC Edition - Front Side

The record-breaking Focus RS World Rally Car has started its 12th and final season as Ford Motor Company’s official challenger in the FIA World Rally Championship. The car, which powered Ford to consecutive manufacturers’ world titles in 2006 and 2007, will be replaced in 2011 by an all-new car based on the highly-successful Fiesta road car.

The Ford Focus RS WRC has won 41 world rallies since its debut at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1999. It ended last season having scored points on a remarkable 119 consecutive world rallies, a record stretching back to the start of the 2002 season and one unmatched in WRC history.

During the 2010 season Ford of Europe and technical partner M-Sport will develop an all-new challenger for 2011 using M-Sport’s Fiesta S2000 rally car as its base. Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen took the Fiesta S2000 to victory ‘first time out’ on the famous Monte Carlo Rally in January this year. (Note: Monte Carlo is not a WRC round for 2010.

Strong Team for 2010 Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen, runners-up in the 2008 and 2009 drivers’ championships, are again partnered by fellow Finns Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila in the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team for 2010. In their Focus RS WRC, they will tackle a 13-round series which started in Sweden last month and ends in Britain in November.

Khalid Al Qassimi and Michael Orr are driving a third car for the team. The Abu Dhabi driver will contest 10 rounds.

Henning Solberg and new co-driver Ilka Minor will return to the series with the re-named Stobart M-Sport Ford team alongside Matthew Wilson and Scott Martin. Both will drive Focus RS WRCs.

American action sports icon turned rally driver, Ken Block, will also be seen behind the wheel of Ford rally cars in 2010. His newly-formed Monster World Rally Team will be in action during a seven-round WRC programme with a Focus RS WRC. His first outing will be at Rally Mexico (4 – 7 March) and he will also tackle rounds in Turkey, Portugal, Germany, France, Spain and Britain. His car will be prepared by British-based M-Sport, the company which operates Ford’s official world rally programme.

Block will combine his WRC season with all six rounds of the Rally America series at the wheel of a Monster Fiesta Rally America car. His North American programme will culminate at the X Games 16 event in Los Angeles in early August. His co-driver is Italian Alessandro Gelsomino.

The two-litre turbocharged Monster Fiesta Rally America car is prepared by Swedish team Olsbergs Motorsports Evolution (OSME) and is based on the successful production-based Fiesta Rallycross car that competed in the FIA European Rallycross Championship in 2009.

Both Block’s programmes will be supported primarily by Monster Energy Drink and Ford.

Ford of Europe motorsport chief,Gerard Quinn, is confident of a strong season this year.

‘The experience both drivers gained in 2009 will be invaluable this year,’ Quinn said. ‘Mikko flourished last season and to miss out on the drivers’ title by just a single point against the most successful driver the sport has seen speaks volumes about his performance level. I’m confident we can again challenge for both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ titles.

‘Hand-in-hand with our competitive season, we will be developing the new Fiesta rally car for the 2011 WRC. We have the strong attributes of the Fiesta road car on which to build. While the 2011 Fiesta RS WRC will display several major differences from the M-Sport Fiesta S2000 that won in Monte Carlo, it is hugely encouraging that we are working from a base rally car that won on its debut,’ added Quinn.

Price this car:
MSRP: $60,000
Invoice: not available yet
Source: Ford Press Release
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