2018 World Rally Championship-2

The Rally of Poland was removed from the calendar after the FIA repeatedly raised concerns about the event's safety.[12] The FIA had previously ordered a review of the event's safety standards ahead of the 2017 event, threatening to rescind the rally's World Championship status if conditions were not improved.[13]

The Rally of Poland was replaced by the Rally of Turkey, which returned to the calendar for the first time since 2010.[2] The event, which was previously based in Istanbul, return to south-western Turkey. It was based in the coastal resort town of Marmaris in Muğla Province,[14] with the route running along the Mediterranean coastline.[15]

The rallies of Great Britain and Catalunya swapped places on the schedule, with Rally Catalunya becoming the penultimate round of the championship.[2] Rallye Deutschland relocated to a new headquarters with the service park located at the Bostalsee reservoir in Saarland state.[6]

Rallye Monte Carlo featured a heavily revised route from the 2017 event, with half the route being brand new.[5] After starting in Mexico City in 2017, Rally Mexico returned to its traditional start in Guanajuato. The route featured minor changes and included a new Power Stage.[16]

The route for the Tour de Corse was heavily revised, with only two of the seven stages being run as they were in 2017. The headquarters of the event was relocated to Bastia, which hosted the event for the first time since 1978.[17]

Organisers of the Wales Rally GB announced plans for a heavily revised route. The changes were made possible by the passage of legislation by the British government allowing public roads to be used for motorsport.[18][19]

The 2018 season saw several new car models become available for competition:

• Citroën made an R5 variation of the C3, known as the Citroën C3 R5.[20] The Citroën DS3 R5 was still eligible to compete.
• Volkswagen entered the World Rally Championship-2 for the first time with the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, the replacement for the cancelled Polo R WRC project.[21]

The following teams and crews were entered in the 2018 FIA World Rally Championship-2:

Manufacturer	Car	Entrant	Tyre	Driver	Co-driver	Rounds
Ford	Ford Fiesta R5	M-Sport Ford WRT	M	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	1, 9, 11
				Teemu Suninen	Mikko Markkula	1
				Marco Bulacia	Fernando Mussano	3
			D			5
				Nil Solans	Miquel Ibañez	3–6
			P			9
					Marc Martí	11–12
			M	Gus Greensmith	Craig Parry	3, 5–6, 8
					Stuart Loudon	9
					Alex Gelsomino	10–11
				Pedro Heller	Pablo Olmos	3, 5–6, 10, 13
				Alberto Heller	José Diaz	5, 13
				Jouni Virtanen	Enni Mälkönen	8
			P	Georgios Vassilakis	Spyros Koltsidas	10
		X-One Racing	P	Kevin Abbring	Pieter Tsjoen	1–2, 6
		Tommi Mäkinen Racing	P	Takamoto Katsuta	Marko Salminen	2, 6
			M			4, 7–8, 12
				Hiroki Arai	Jarmo Lehtinen	7–8
					Glenn MacNeall	4
			P			2, 6
		Tommi Mäkinen Racing 2	M	Jarkko Nikara	Sayaka Adachi	8
		TAIF Motorsport	M	Radik Shaymiev	Maxim Tsvetkov	2
		GB Motors	P	Gianluca Linari	Nicola Arena	2
		Castrol Ford Team Türkiye	P	Murat Bostanci	Onur Vatansever	6, 8, 10
		Keane Motorsport	P	Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	6
		Lotos Rally Team	P	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciek Szczepaniak	7, 9–10, 12
		Ford Motorsport Turkey	P	Yağiz Avci	Ersan Alkir	10
				Deniz Fahri	Bahadir Gücenmez	10
				Bora Manyera	Cem Çerkez	10
Škoda Auto	Škoda Fabia R5	Škoda Motorsport II	M	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	1, 4, 7, 9–10
				Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	4, 7
				Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	9, 11
				Pontus Tidemand	Jonas Andersson	10–11
		Škoda Motorsport				2–3, 5–6
				Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	2, 8
				Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	3, 5, 8, 12
				Juuso Nordgren	Tapio Suominen	6
				Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	12
		Printsport	M	Łukasz Pieniążek	Przemysław Mazur	2, 4, 6–7, 9, 11–12
				Emil Lindholm	Mikael Korhonen	8
			P	Lars Stugemo	Kalle Lexe	2, 8
		S.A. Motorsport Italia Srl	D	Umberto Scandola	Andrea Gaspari	2, 9
		CA1 Sport Ltd	D	Fredrik Åhlin	Joakim Sjöberg	2
		Pontus Tidemand Racing	P	Mattias Adielsson	Andreas Johansson	2
		Toksport World Rally Team	P	Janne Tuohino	Reeta Hämäläinen	2
				Jarmo Berg	Rami Suorsa	2
			M	Chris Ingram	Ross Whittock	10–11
				Henning Solberg	Ilka Minor	12
				Rhys Yates	Elliott Edmondson	12
		Motorsport Italia	P	Benito Guerra	Borja Rozada	3, 6–9
					Emanuele Inglesi	12
				Diogo Salvi	Hugo Magalhães	10
				Armin Kremer	Pirmin Winklhofer	13
		ACI Team Italia WRC	P	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	4, 6, 12
					Emanuele Inglesi	8–9, 11
		Saba Competición	D	Gustavo Saba	Marcelo der Ohannesian	5
		ABR World Rally Team	D	Tiago Weiler	Fabian Cretu	5
		TGS Worldwide	M	Eerik Pietarinen	Juhana Raitanen	8
		Škoda Auto Deutschland	M	Fabian Kreim	Frank Christian	9
		BC Vision Motorsport	M	Burak Çukurova	Vedat Bostanci	10
			P	Erkan Güral	Burak Koçoğlu	10
		Race Seven	D	Marco Bulacia	Fabian Cretu	11–12
		2C Competition	M	Sylvain Michel	Anthony Gorguilo	12
Peugeot	Peugeot 208 T16 R5	Peugeot Belgium Luxembourg	M	Guillaume De Mévius	Louis Louka	1, 4
Citroën	Citroën DS3 R5	PH Sport	M	Eddie Sciessere	Flavio Zanella	1
	Citroën C3 R5			Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	11
		Citroën Total	M	Stéphane Lefebvre	Gabin Moreau	4, 6–9, 11–12
				Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	7–12
				Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	12
		CHL Sport Auto	M	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	4, 9
		Sports & You	M	Pepe López	Borja Rozada	12
Hyundai	Hyundai i20 R5	Hyundai Motorsport	M	Jari Huttunen	Antti Linnaketo	2–3, 6, 8–9, 11–12
				Nicolas Ciamin	Thibault de la Haye	4, 7–9
				Max Vatanen	Christopher Guieu	6
		BRC Racing Team	M	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	4, 6–9, 11–12
		Hyundai Paraguay	D	Diego Dominguez	Edgardo Galindo	5
		Metior Sport	M	Eddie Sciessere	Pietro Ometto	9
		Hyundai Motor España	M	José Antonio Suárez	Cándido Carrera	9, 12
Volkswagen	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	Volkswagen Motorsport	M	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	12
				Petter Solberg	Veronica Engan	12
Subaru	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	GB Motors	P	Gianluca Linari	Pietro Ometto	13
Source:[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]

Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers in each event. Six best results counted towards championship.