Rally Mundial - Argentina

Rally Argentina was first held in 1980 in the province of Tucuman, organised by the Automovil Club Argentino, after successfully running two FIA sanctioned events: in 1978, Rally Vuelta a la America del Sur and in 1979, Rally Codasur.

Bianchi - Del Riego.
Toyota Celica 2000GT (1980)

Walter Rohrl - Christian Geistdorfer (Fiat 131 Abarth) were the winners of that first edition in 1980. Tucuman also played host to the 1981 Rally Argentina. The event did not take place in 1982 and one year later it moved south to San Carlos de Bariloche.

Michèle Mouton - Fabrizia Pons
Audi Quattro A2 (1983)

In 1984 Cordoba was the base of the event and proved to be the most suitable location for this kind of competition. Since then, Rally Argentina has always been held in Cordoba with the sole exception of the 1992 edition run in Tucuman.
Twisty roads, stages at high altitude, many water splashes and over a million fans are just some of the features of the most popular event of the world rally calendar.

Rally Argentina has offered the highest level of competition in each of its 26 editions, from Massimo Biasion and his Lancia, who seemed to be unbeatable in the mid eighties, to the last victories of Citroën.

Jorge Recalde obtained the only WRC victory of his career in 1988 with the Lancia Delta, and thus became the first and only Argentinean driver to win this event.

Ari Vatanen - Terry Harryman
Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2 - (1985)

Miki Biasion - Tiziano Siviero
Lancia Delta S4 - (1986)

Didier Auriol won in 1994 after a thrilling fight with Carlos Sainz, only decided for 6 seconds. The Tommi Makinen-Mitsubishi combination became the only one to get three victories on a row, in 1996-1997 and 1998. Juha Kankkunen snatched the first place to his teammate Richard Burns in 1999, but the Briton took revenge one year later.

Colin McRae enjoyed a victory in his seventh visit to Argentina in 2001, whilst Carlos Sainz became the winner of edition 2002 following the exclusions of Marcus Gronhölm and Richard Burns, in one of the most surprising definitions of all times.

Jorge Recalde - Jorge del Buono
Lancia Delta Integrale - (1988)

Mohammed Bin Sulayem -Ronan Morgan
Ford Escort RS Cosworth - (1993)

One year later, Marcus Gronholm would make up for his exclusion, achieving victory on the last stages of the event.This would be the first one of a series of six consecutive victories for Citroën, with Sébastien Loeb reaching the first place in the last five editions.

Statistics
The most winning driver
The driver with the greatest number of wins in Rally Argentina is the French Sébastien Loeb who registers five victories. Miki Biasion, Carlos Sainz and Tommi Makinen follow him with 3 each.

The most winning make
The most winning make is Lancia, with 7 triumphs. While Citroen is getting closer to this record having reached the maximum step of the podium in the last 6 editions.

The best Argentinean driver
The only national driver to ever win the Rally was Jorge Recalde in 1988 and 1995 (edition valid for F2 only).

Winners
There have been 16 different winners in the 26 editions of Rally Argentina.

Tommi Mäkinen - Seppo Harjanne
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 - (1996)

PREVIOUS WINNERS OF RALLY ARGENTINA