Manufacturers to win a WRC rally 10 times

Toyota made World Rally Championship history on last weekend’s Safari Rally Kenya, becoming the first manufacturer to score back-to-back 1-2-3-4s on a specific event and the first to record three on any given rally too.

But through its success, led by eight-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier, Toyota also entered an elusive club of just three other manufacturers to win a WRC event 10 times or more.

Here, starting with the club’s newest member, we look at all the times a manufacturer has won a WRC rally at least 10 times:

Toyota – Safari Rally

10 wins

Toyota’s Safari success story started just under 40 years ago, when Björn Waldegård powered a Celica Twincam Turbo to victory in 1984.

Toyota made winning in Africa a big priority and therefore tested accordingly, sweeping to three consecutive Safari Rally wins from 1984-86 – and conquering the Ivory Coast Rally in ’85 and ’86 too.

More success would come in the Group A era as Waldegård, Juha Kankkunen, Carlos Sainz and Ian Duncan ensured a Celica won four of the five Safari Rallies from 1990-94.

Toyota’s success has continued in the modern era, as in each of the three years the rally has been back on the WRC calendar, a Yaris has won.

Sébastien Ogier won in 2021 and 2023, while Kalle Rovanperä was victorious in 2022.

Lancia – Tour de Corse

10 wins

Lancia has set plenty of records in the WRC – and spoiler alert, this is not the only time it will be appearing on this list. But its domination of the Tour de Corse, in the mid-1970s in particular, was impressive.

The mid-engined, wedge-shaped Stratos HF was perfectly suited to the twisting mountain roads of Corsica, and Lancia’s drivers made full use of that – Jean-Claude Andruet, Bernard Darniche (twice) and Sandro Munari all winning the Tour de Corse in a Stratos.

But, as the Group B era dawned, Lancia kept winning too thanks to flying Finn Markku Alén who bagged two back-to-back successes in 1983 and ’84 with the 037.

Didier Auriol then carried the mantle through the Group A era, winning the event thrice in Delta Integrales.

Ford – Rally Finland

10 wins

If you want to win, employ a Finn.

If there was anywhere that adage rings particularly true, it’s in Finland itself. And it’s certainly worked out for Ford in the past.

Over the years, eight different Finns have delivered Ford victory on Rally Finland, including over half of the nation’s world champions.

Markko Märtin stands as the only non-Finn to win Rally Finland in a Ford when he succeeded in 2003. Marcus Grönholm meanwhile is the only driver to have won the rally twice in a Ford.

Intriguingly, both the Escort (in its various guises) and the Focus have won the event five times. However Ford has since lost its grip on the event, having not conquered Finland since Jari-Matti Latvala’s victory in 2010.

Citroën – Rally Argentina

10 wins

Rally Argentina is often referred to as the one rally Sébastien Ogier never managed to win, but it should also be known as the rally Citroën never managed to not win.

From 2004-2015, the French marque was only beaten to Rally Argentina victory once, by the Volkswagen of Jari-Matti Latvala.

Carlos Sainz got the ball rolling with what turned out to be the final WRC win of his career in 2004, before Sébastien Loeb emphatically took over the mantle.

Whether he was driving a Xsara, C4 or DS3, Loeb was untouchable in Argentina and went unbeaten for eight WRC editions running from 2005-2013 (the event was not part of the WRC in 2010). Perhaps the only reason he didn’t win thereafter is 2013 was his last Argentina entry!

Kris Meeke restored Citroën to the top with his first career WRC victory in what was also a Citroën 1-2 ahead of team-mate Mads Østberg.

Citroën – Rally Germany

11 wins

If you thought Citroën’s 10 wins from 11 Rally Argentinas was impressive, then its Rally Germany record will blow your mind.

From 2002 all the way to 2013, Citroën was never beaten on German soil. It’s a mental statistic, but even more so when you consider just one man was largely responsible for it all.

Sébastien Loeb.

Winning his first ever WRC rally in 2002, Loeb went on an unprecedented run of eight Rally Germany wins in a row – therefore, until 2010, being the only driver to ever win the event in the WRC (as it was not staged in 2009).

Sébastien Ogier famously put a stop to Loeb’s run in 2011 after that famous “there’s justice in the sport” team orders row, but Loeb returned to the top step on his final Germany start in 2012.

Dani Sordo claimed Citroën’s 11th German win in 2013, in what was also neatly his first-ever win in the world championship.

Citroën – Rally Spain

11 wins

Germany is far from the only asphalt WRC event Citroën has made its own. It also has 11 wins on Rally Spain.

The Spanish round of the world championship is the rally Citroën has the most varied success on, with success across more eras as five different models topped the podium.

Philippe Bugalski was the first successful Citroën driver, as he claimed Citroën’s first of its 102 WRC wins in 1999 with the front-wheel-drive Xsara Kit Car.

Then it was down to Mr Loeb, who produced a scorching run of eight successive wins from 2005-2012 in the Xsara, C4 and DS3 WRCs.

Citroën success dried up as Volkswagen entered the WRC but with it gone, and into the final generation of World Rally Cars, Citroën won twice with its C3 courtesy of Kris Meeke and then finally Loeb again in 2018.

Lancia – Monte Carlo Rally

11 wins

Sébastien Ogier and Sébastien Loeb may dominate the charts for drivers on the Monte Carlo Rally’s roll of honor, but it’s a marque that neither of the two Sébastiens ever drove for (save for Loeb representing it in part in World RX this year) that has the most success.

Lancia.

Some eclectic names have won the Monte for Lancia, including Walter Röhrl, Henri Toivonen, Miki Biasion, Didier Auriol and Bernard Darniche, but Sandro Munari stands as the brand’s most successful driver on the famous event.

The Italian scored three wins on the bounce between 1975-77 in the legendary Stratos HF, which is second only to the all-conquering Delta as Lancia’s most successful car on the Monte Carlo Rally.

From the start of the Group A era until Lancia pulled out as a manufacturer at the end of 1992, Lancia was only beaten once on the Monte (in 1991).

Lancia – Sanremo Rally

12 wins

Lancia’s most successful ever event is, however, quite fittingly its home rally in Sanremo.

On 12 separate occasions, Lancia topped Sanremo with two distinct dominant periods in the 1970s and then later in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Sandro Munari claimed Lancia’s first WRC win in Sanremo but it was Swede Björn Waldegård who took the next two – somewhat controversially in 1976 as Lancia team management asked Waldegård and Munari to call off their battle for victory until the final stage.

Waldegård led by four seconds and was therefore held at the start-line for an extra four seconds to make it a fair fight. The 1979 world champion was quicker and won the rally, but soon sought a route out of Lancia.

Lancia’s other period of domination was kickstarted by double world champion Miki Biasion who won his home event three times in a row between 1987-89. Note, we are excluding the 1986 event (won by Markku Alén in Delta S4) as the result was later annulled by the FIA.

Didier Auriol kept Lancia’s run rolling for the next two seasons before Andrea Aghini took his sole WRC win in 1992.

Ford – Acropolis Rally

13 wins

Top spot in this list is exclusively reserved for Ford, though, which has won not one but two rounds of the WRC an incredible 13 times.

The first of those is the notorious Acropolis Rally, which the Blue Oval has won throughout the various eras of its WRC involvement.

The iconic Mk2 Escort conquered the rock-strewn Greek stages four times – twice with Björn Waldegård and then twice with Ari Vatanen – before Miki Biasion gave the Group A Escort Cosworth a win in 1993; the Italian’s only win for Ford.

It’s through the World Rally Car era where Ford was particularly dominant on the Acropolis though.

Carlos Sainz won in 1997 with the Escort WRC before Colin McRae went for the three-peat from 2000-02 in the Focus.

Markko Märtin famously secured his maiden WRC win despite the car’s hood flipping up in 2003, while Finns Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen made sure the successes kept rolling in towards the end of the decade.

Ford – Rally GB

13 wins

The other rally Ford has won a record 13 times is effectively its home round, Rally GB.

Throughout the 1970s in particular, simply nobody could match Ford and its Escort as the brand won the first seven WRC editions of the rally from 1973-79 with drivers Timo Mäkinen, Roger Clark, Björn Waldegård and Hannu Mikkola.

Amazingly, Ford wouldn’t win in Britain again until the 21st century though as Marcus Grönholm ended a 27-year drought with victory in 2006.

Grönholm’s win began another run of success though as team-mate Mikko Hirvonen won in 2007 and Jari-Matti Latvala went back-to-back in 2011 and ’12 with the Fiesta RS WRC.

Its successor, designed for more aggressive technical regulations, won twice in GB too – first with Elfyn Evans when M-Sport had that historic day of winning the rally and both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship, then Sébastien Ogier in 2018 in what turned out to be an incredibly important victory for his title bid.