Nikolay Gryazin
Nikolay Stanislavovich Gryazin (Russian: Николай Станиславович Грязин, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈɫaɪ̯ stənʲɪˈsɫavəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈɡrʲæzʲɪn]; born 7 October 1997) is a Russian rally driver currently competing as an authorised neutral athlete.[2] He is the son of former rally driver Stanislav Gryazin and the younger brother of rally driver Vasiliy Gryazin.
 Nikolay Gryazin in 2018 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Russian[lower-alpha 1] (2019–2020) Russian Automobile Federation[lower-alpha 2] (2021–2022) FIA (2022–present)[lower-alpha 3] |
| Born | 7 October 1997 Moscow, Russia |
| World Rally Championship record | |
| Active years | 2019–present |
| Co-driver | // Konstantin Aleksandrov |
| Teams | Hyundai, Movisport, Toksport |
| Rallies | 33 |
| Championships | 0 |
| Rally wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Stage wins | 0 |
| Total points | 20 |
| First rally | 2019 Rally Sweden |
Gryazin has four overall victories in the European Rally Championship, and he finished second in the 2018 European Rally Championship, winning the ERC Junior U28 title. In 2019, he made his debut in the World Rally Championship, achieving his first WRC-2 class victory in the 2019 Rally Finland.
He currently competes for Toksport World Rally Team driving a Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo in the World Rally Championship-2, the premier support category of the World Rally Championship. His current co-driver is fellow Russian Konstantin Aleksandrov.
Background
A Russian driver with Latvian background, since the beginning of his rallying career, he has been a member of the junior rally program of Sports Racing Technologies.
Career
Early years
With their backing, he first rose to prominence in 2016, in the junior classes of the European Rally Championship, running a full-time campaign in the ERC-3 class with an R2-spec Peugeot 208. From the start he showed speed, but lacked enough consistency. After four rallies in which he failed to finish, he scored a class win at the Polish round in Rzeszowski and a podium at the Czech Rally Zlín. He finished the season placed 4th in the ERC-3 standings.[3] He would also place 6th in the Latvian junior championship that year.
2017–2018: ERC & Latvia
In 2017, Gryazin would make the step-up to four-wheel drive machinery, as he would be using the Škoda Fabia R5 for a full-time outright campaign on the European and Latvian Rally Championships, along with select regional rallies across Europe. Gryazin struggled to take off in the European Championship, only managing a best finish of 5th at the Rallye Açores, until he fought Kalle Rovanperä to take an overall win at the season-ending Rally Liepaja, the Latvian round of the ERC.[4] He finished the ERC season 7th place, and came second in the Under-28 trophy. Back in Latvia, he managed an impressive three victories and finished runner-up in the championship. Gryazin coupled these programs with podium finishes and victories in regional rallies at Estonia, Slovenia, and Finland.
The year of 2018 marked a breakout year for the young Russian. In addition to continued full-season efforts in the ERC and Latvia with the Fabia, Gryazin would also tackle the Finnish championship as well. This season would prove to be very successful for Gryazin, as he would take two overall victories in the ERC, one in Poland with a hard battle between himself and Jari Huttunen, and at Rally Liepaja for the second consecutive year. These victories were obtained on the way to a runner-up finish in the 2018 ERC standings, winning the Under-28 trophy as well. Gryazin finished 3rd in the Latvian championship with three victories, as well as taking home 4th in the Finnish Championship with one win. He took additional podiums and victories in regional rallies at Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Sweden, and Norway.
2019–present: World Rally Championship-2
After a big breakthrough year in 2018, it was announced that Nikolay Gryazin and Sports Racing Technologies would make the step up to a full-season campaign in the World Rally Championship-2 in 2019, which would mark his first starts in the World Rally Championship.[5] After two victories in warm-up rallies in Norway, Gryazin made his WRC debut at Rally Sweden, and he would finish 15th overall, and 5th in the WRC-2 class.[6] In his next round at Corsica, he finished 12th overall, and took a 2nd place WRC-2 finish, capitalizing on the attrition of the regular favorites. The rest of his 2019 season campaign is scheduled to be the remaining non-fly away events.
Rally results
Complete WRC results
| Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Nikolay Gryazin[lower-alpha 4] | Škoda Fabia R5 | MON | SWE 15 |
MEX | FRA 12 |
ARG | CHL | POR 13 |
ITA Ret |
FIN 10 |
GER 20 |
TUR WD |
24th | 1 | |||
| Škoda Fabia R5 Evo | GBR 13 |
ESP 23 |
AUS C | |||||||||||||||
| 2020 | Hyundai Motorsport N | Hyundai i20 R5 | MON 16 |
SWE 21 |
MEX 7 |
EST 19 |
TUR | ITA Ret |
MNZ | 18th | 6 | |||||||
| 2021 | Movisport | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | MON 12 |
ARC 12 |
CRO Ret |
POR 10 |
ITA Ret |
KEN | EST Ret |
BEL 59 |
FIN 36 |
30th | 2 | |||||
| Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II | GRE 13 |
|||||||||||||||||
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | ESP 10 |
MNZ 13 |
||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Toksport WRT 2 | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | MON 10 |
SWE Ret |
CRO 10 |
POR 28 |
ITA 8 |
KEN | EST WD |
FIN Ret |
BEL 8 |
GRE 10 |
NZL | ESP 13 |
JPN | 18th | 11 |
* Season still in progress.
Complete WRC-2 results
| Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Nikolay Gryazin[lower-alpha 4] | Škoda Fabia R5 | MON | SWE 5 |
MEX | FRA 2 |
ARG | CHL | POR 5 |
ITA Ret |
FIN |
GER 5 |
TUR WD |
GBR | 4th | 73 | ||
| Škoda Fabia R5 Evo | ESP 11 |
AUS C | ||||||||||||||||
| 2020 | Hyundai Motorsport N | Hyundai i20 R5 | MON 3 |
SWE 6 |
MEX 2 |
EST 5 |
TUR | ITA Ret |
MNZ | 5th | 51 | |||||||
| 2021 | Movisport | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | MON | ARC 3 |
CRO Ret |
POR 4 |
ITA | KEN | EST Ret |
BEL 2 |
FIN 6 |
ESP | MNZ | 6th | 77 | |||
| Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II | GRE 3 |
|||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Toksport WRT 2 | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | MON 3 |
SWE Ret |
CRO 4 |
POR | ITA 1 |
KEN | EST WD |
FIN Ret |
BEL | GRE 2 |
NZL | ESP 3 |
JPN | 5th | 85 |
* Season still in progress.
Complete European Rally Championship Results
| Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ERC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Sports Racing Technologies | Škoda Fabia R5 | JAN | LVA | IRL | ACO | YPR | EST | CZE | CYP | GRC | VAL 6 |
34th | 10 |
| 2016 | Sports Racing Technologies | Peugeot 208 R2 | ESP | IRL 20 |
GRC | ACO Ret |
YPR Ret |
EST Ret |
POL 13 |
CZE 29 |
LVA 27 |
NC | 0 | |
| Škoda Fabia R5 | CYP Ret | |||||||||||||
| 2017 | Sports Racing Technologies | Škoda Fabia R5 | ACO 5 |
ESP 12 |
GRC Ret |
CYP 33 |
POL Ret |
CZE 14 |
ROM 8 |
LVA 1 |
7th | 59 | ||
| 2018 | Sports Racing Technologies | Škoda Fabia R5 | ACO | ESP 2 |
GRC | CYP | ROM 27 |
CZE 5 |
POL 1 |
LVA 1 |
2nd | 129 | ||
| 2019 | Sports Racing Technologies | Škoda Fabia R5 | AZO | CAN | LIE | POL | RMC Ret |
CZE Ret |
CYP | HUN | NC | 0 | ||
| 2020 | Nikolay Gryazin | Hyundai i20 R5 | ITA | LAT 20 |
PRT | HUN | ESP | 34th | 1 | |||||
| 2021 | Movisport | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | POL Ret |
LAT 1 |
ITA 21 |
CZE | PRT1 | PRT2 | HUN 22 |
ESP | 9th | 44 |
Notes
- He occasionally competed under a Latvian licence.
- Nikolay Gryazin competed as a neutral competitor hiding his Russian flag using the designation RAF (Russian Automobile Federation), as the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a ban on Russia competing at World Championships. The ban was implemented by the World Anti-Doping Agency in response to state-sponsored doping program of Russian athletes.
- Nikolay Gryazin competes as a neutral competitor using the FIA flag as Russian national emblems were banned by the association due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[1]
- Entry run by Sports Racing Technologies.
References
- "FIA announces World Motor Sport Council decisions in relation to the situation in Ukraine". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- "FIA announces World Motor Sport Council decisions in relation to the situation in Ukraine". Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. 2022-03-01. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
- "NIKOLAY GRYAZIN – DRIVER PROFILE". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
- "52. Azores Airlines Rallye 2017". e-wrc.com. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
- JB (29 December 2018). "Débarquement de Nikolay Gryazin en WRC-2". planetemarcus.com. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
- "WRC 2 in Sweden:Østberg seals Pro win". wrc.com. WRC. 17 February 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
External links
