Reigning Spanish gravel national champion Nil Solans will make his top-flight debut in the World Rally Championship on next week’s Rally Spain, taking over from the injured Pierre-Louis Loubet at 2C Competition Hyundai.
Loubet is out for the rest of the WRC season after being hit by a car in Paris, leaving his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC run by 2C vacant for the remainder of the season.
His seat has unexpectedly been filled by Solans, the 2017 Junior WRC champion, who has been competing in the European Rally Championship for Rallye Team Spain in a Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo so far this season.
Results have been mixed so far in Solans’ first campaign in the ERC, scoring a best result of fourth but crashing out in both Rome and the Azores to sit sixth in the championship after last weekend’s Rally Serras de Fafe e Felgueiras.
Solans’ WRC debut also marks the return of a familiar face to the top level of WRC in Marc Martí.
Martí served as Dani Sordo’s co-driver for 13 years but has not featured in the world championship’s premier category since parting ways with his compatriot at the end of the 2017 season.
Prior to his partnership with Sordo, Martí served alongside two-time champion Carlos Sainz and multiple Spanish champion Jesús Puras.
