2016 WRC3 Championship

The 2016 FIA WRC3 Championship was the fourth season of WRC3, a rallying championship organised and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, ran in support of the World Rally Championship. It was created when the Group R class of rally car was introduced in 2013. The Championship was composed of fourteen rallies, and drivers and teams had to nominate a maximum of six events. The best five results counted towards the championship.^[1]

Quentin Gilbert was the defending champion, as he won the 2015 title.

The calendar was announced in November 2015 by the FIA.^[2] The season was scheduled to expand with one rally in comparison to the 2015 championship, contested over fourteen rounds in Europe, the Americas, Oceania and Asia,^[3][4] but the Chinese round was ultimately cancelled.

Round	Dates	Rally name	Rally headquarters	Surface	Stages	Distance
1	21–24 January	Monte Carlo Rally	Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France	Mixed	16	337.59km
2	12–14 February	Rally Sweden	Karlstad, Värmland	Snow	121a	226.48km1b
3	3–6 March	Rally Mexico	León, Guanajuato	Gravel	21	399.67km
4	21–24 April	Rally Argentina	Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba	Gravel	18	364.68km
5	19–22 May	Rally de Portugal	Matosinhos, Porto	Gravel	19	368.00km
6	9–12 June	Rally Italia Sardegna	Alghero, Sardinia	Gravel	19	324.60km
7	30 June–3 July	Rally Poland	Mikołajki, Warmia-Masuria	Gravel	21	306.10km
8	28–31 July	Rally Finland	Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi	Gravel	24	333.99km
9	19–21 August	Rallye Deutschland	Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate	Tarmac	18	306.80km
10	9–11 September	Rally China	Beijing, Hebei	Tarmac	Cancelled2
11	30 September–2 October	Tour de Corse	Bastia, Haute-Corse	Tarmac	10	390.92km
12	13–16 October	Rally Catalunya	Salou, Tarragona	Mixed	21	321.08km
13	28–30 October	Wales Rally GB	Deeside, Flintshire	Gravel	22	336.00km
14	18–20 November	Rally Australia	Coffs Harbour, New South Wales	Gravel	23	283.36km3

Notes

• ^1  – Rally Sweden was shortened due to warm weather conditions turning frozen roads into soft, muddy gravel and making the studded tyres unsafe to use.^[5]
• ^2  – Rally China was cancelled due to weather damage caused by torrential storms and flooding in July.^[6]
• ^3  – The route of Rally Australia was shortened following concerns over dust reducing visibility in forest stages.

• Rally Australia was moved from its September date to November to become the final round of the championship.^[4]
• The calendar was to be expanded to fourteen rounds in 2016,^[7] with the inclusion of the Rally of China, seventeen years after its only appearance as a round of the WRC.^[8][9]
• The Tour de Corse relocated its headquarters from Corte to Bastia, which features a brand-new route.^[10]

Entrant	Car	Class	Tyre	Drivers	Co-Drivers	Rounds
Printsport[11]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Ole Christian Veiby[11]	Jonas Andersson[11]	1
					Stig Rune Skjærmoen[12]	5, 7–10
				Juuso Nordgren[13]	Mikael Korhonen[13]	8
ACI Team Italia[11]	Peugeot 208 R2	R2	P	Fabio Andolfi[11]	Manuel Fenoli[11]	1, 5–6, 8–9, 11
				Damiano De Tommaso[11]	Massimiliano Bosi[11]	1
					Paolo Rocca[12]	5–6, 8–9, 11
Peugeot Rally Academy[11]	Peugeot 208 R2	R2	M	Jordan Berfa[11]	Damien Augustin[11]	1, 9–10
Styllex Slovak National Team[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Martin Koči[11]	Lukáš Kostka[11]	1, 5, 7–10, 12
Saintéloc Junior Team[11]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Michel Fabre[11]	Maxime Vilmot[11]	1–4, 11–13
				Yohan Rossel[14]	Benoît Fulcrand[14]	12
Équipe de France FFSA[14]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M			10
				Laurent Pellier[14]	Benoit Neyret-Gigot[14]	10
LTB Motor[11]	Peugeot 208 R2	R2	M	Igor Giusti[11]	Patrick Chiappe[11]	1
					Gilbert Dini[12]	5–6, 10
AFC Racing	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Vincent Dubert[11]	Sébastien Pujol[11]	1
					Alexandre Coria[12]	5, 7–10, 12
Vieffecorse[11]	Peugeot 208 R2	R2	D	Enrico Brazzoli[11]	Maurizio Barone[11]	1, 5–6, 10–11
Renault Sport Rally Team[12]	Renault Clio RS R3T	R3	M	Michaël Burri[12]	Anderson Levratti[12]	5, 7–12
Fernando Costa Motorsport[12]	Renault Clio RS R3T	R3	D	Carlos Oliveira[12]	José Janela[12]	5
Abu Dhabi Racing Team[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Mohamed Al-Mutawaa[12]	Stephen McAuley[12]	5, 7–9
					Stuart Loudon[14]	10, 12
Trajectoire Racing[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Romain Martel[12]	Vanessa Lemoine[12]	5, 7–10
				Frédéric Hauswald[12]	Maxime Vilmot[12]	5
Hans Weijs Motorsport[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Hans Thilo Himmel[12]	Nicolaas Swartz[12]	5, 7
Citroën Racing[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Łukasz Pieniąźek[12]	Przemek Mazur[12]	5, 7–8
Delta Rally[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Andrea Crugnola[12]	Michele Ferrara[12]	5, 7–8
Napoca Rally Academy[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Simone Tempestini[12]	Giovanni Bernacchini[12]	5, 7–10, 12
Sébastien Loeb Racing[12]	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	Terry Folb[12]	Franck Le Floch[12]	5, 7–10, 12
Rally Technology[15]	Peugeot 208 R2	R2	M	Tomasz Gryc[15]	Michał Kuśnierz[15]	7
Hontec Motorsport[16]	Renault Clio RS R3T	R3	M	Kevin van Deijne[16]	Hein Verschuuren[16]	9, 11
PH Sport	Citroën DS3 R3T	R3	M	William Wagner[14]	Antoine Paque[14]	10, 12

Round	Event name	Winning driver	Winning co-driver	Winning Entry	Winning time	Report
1	Rallye Monte Carlo	Ole Christian Veiby	Jonas Andersson	Printsport	4:30:42.9	Report
2	Rally Sweden	Michel Fabre	Maxime Vilmot	Saintéloc Junior Team	2:41:39.5	Report
3	Rally Mexico	Michel Fabre	Maxime Vilmot	Saintéloc Junior Team	5:34:30.7	Report
4	Rally Argentina	Michel Fabre	Maxime Vilmot	Saintéloc Junior Team	4:53:11.0	Report
5	Rally de Portugal	Simone Tempestini	Giovanni Bernacchini	Napoca Rally Academy	4:30:15.7	Report
6	Rally Italia Sardegna	Fabio Andolfi	Manuel Fenoli	ACI Team Italia	4:08:32.3	Report
7	Rally Poland	Simone Tempestini	Giovanni Bernacchini	Napoca Rally Academy	3:04:11.3	Report
8	Rally Finland	Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	Printsport	2:55:40.0	Report
9	Rallye Deutschland	Simone Tempestini	Giovanni Bernacchini	Napoca Rally Academy	3:21:12.4	Report
10	Rally China	Rally cancelled
11	Tour de Corse	Laurent Pellier	Benoit Neyret-Gigot	Équipe de France FFSA	4:38:19.3	Report
12	Rally Catalunya	Fabio Andolfi	Manuel Fenoli	ACI Team Italia	3:38:33.6	Report
13	Wales Rally GB	Martin Koči	Lukáš Kostka	Styllex Slovak National Team	3:47:47.4	Report
14	Rally Australia	Michel Fabre	Maxime Vilmot	Saintéloc Junior Team	2:46:05.7	Report

Points are awarded to the top ten classified finishers.

Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER FRA ESP GBR AUS Drops Points 1 Simone Tempestini 1 1 2 1 4 2 0 123 2 Michel Fabre 8 1 1 1 4 5 1 4 122 3 Fabio Andolfi 3 4 1 9 4 1 0 91 4 Martin Koči 6 2 DNS 8 2 3 1 0 88 5 Ole Christian Veiby 1 8 3 1 12 8 0 73 6 Damiano De Tommaso 4 6 2 6 6 3 0 69 7 Vincent Dubert 5 5 5 4 8 7 6 0 60 8 Terry Folb 3 2 Ret 3 6 0 56 9 Michaël Burri 7 8 7 5 2 4 0 56 10 Yohan Rossel 2 3 0 33 11 Romain Martel 10 4 5 5 Ret 0 33 12 Enrico Brazzoli 7 11 4 9 5 0 30 13 Laurent Pellier 1 0 25 14 Jordan Berfa 2 11 Ret 0 18 15 Igor Giusti 9 13 3 10 0 18 16 Juuso Nordgren 3 0 15 17 Mohamed Al-Mutawaa 12 9 7 9 Ret 0 10 18 Tomasz Gryc 6 0 8 19 Łukasz Pieniążek 15 7 0 6 20 Frédéric Hauswald 9 0 2 21 Kevin van Deijne 10 WD 0 1 Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER FRA ESP GBR AUS Drops Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Pos. Co-driver MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER FRA ESP GBR AUS Drops Points 1 Giovanni Bernacchini 1 1 2 1 4 2 0 123 2 Maxime Vilmot3 8 1 1 1 4 5 1 4 122 3 Manuel Fenoli 3 4 1 9 4 1 0 91 4 Lukáš Kostka 6 2 DNS 8 2 3 1 0 88 5 Paolo Rocca 6 2 6 6 3 0 57 6 Franck Le Floch 3 2 Ret 3 6 0 56 7 Anderson Levratti 7 8 7 5 2 4 0 56 8 Alexandre Coria 5 5 4 8 7 6 0 50 9 Stig Rune Skjærmoen 8 3 1 12 8 0 48 10 Benoît Fulcrand 2 3 0 33 11 Vanessa Lemoine 10 4 5 5 Ret 0 33 12 Maurizio Barone 7 11 4 9 5 0 30 13 Jonas Andersson 1 0 25 14 Benoit Neyret-Gigot 1 0 25 15 Damien Augustin 2 11 Ret 0 18 16 Gilbert Dini 13 3 10 0 16 17 Mikael Korhonen 3 0 15 18 Massimiliano Bosi 4 0 12 19 Sébastien Poujol 5 0 10 20 Stephen McAuley 12 9 7 9 0 10 21 Michał Kuśnierz 6 0 8 22 Przemisław Mazur 15 7 0 6 23 Patrick Chiappe 9 0 2 24 Maxime Vilmot4 9 0 2 25 Hein Verschuuren 10 WD 0 1 Pos. Co-driver MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER FRA ESP GBR AUS Drops Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Notes

• ^3  – Points earned with Michel Fabre
• ^4  – Points earned with Frédéric Hauswald

Pos. Team MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER FRA ESP GBR AUS Points 1 Saintéloc Junior Team 4 1 1 1 3 3 1 142 2 Automobile Club d'Italia 3 3 1 2 3 1 113 3 Styllex Slovak National Team 1 DNS 4 1 2 1 105 4 Printsport 1 5 2 1 7 5 94 5 Renault Sport 4 4 4 3 2 2 87 6 Sébastien Loeb Racing 2 1 Ret 2 4 73 7 Abu Dhabi Racing Team 6 5 3 5 Ret 43 8 Peugeot Rally Academy 2 6 Ret 26 9 Équipe de France FFSA 1 25 10 RallyTechnology 3 15 Pos. Team MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER FRA ESP GBR AUS Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

• Official website of the World Rally Championship
• Official website of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile