Puma Rally1 on track from Thursday to Sunday, between Legend Stars and the Memorial Bettega. Also joining is the official Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale, for the first time at Rallylegend.
With just over a month to go, Rallylegend 2026 lifts the veil on one of the chapters most eagerly awaited by its fans: the San Marino event will host the M-Sport Ford WRT official team of the World Rally Championship, starring Martiņš Sesks and his Puma Rally1. Lancia Corse HF also returns as a protagonist at Rallylegend with the Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale.
That’s not all: the agreement for the presence of a leading second World Rally Championship team is in its final stages, to be announced shortly.
In its natural home, Rallylegend, Group B celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the end of a fascinating and unforgettable technical adventure, with more than twenty cars already present between competition and display, some driven by genuine rally legends.
M-SPORT FORD TAKES CENTRE STAGE WITH MARTIŅŠ SESKS AND THE PUMA RALLY1
Representing M-Sport Ford on the San Marino special stages will be Martiņš Sesks, the Latvian driver appointed by the team for Rallylegend 2026, at the wheel of the Ford Puma Rally1. Car and crew will arrive directly from the Italian round of the World Rally Championship in Sardinia, held the week before Rallylegend.
Sesks’ presence will unfold in two stages: from Thursday to Saturday he will be among the protagonists of the Legend Stars category, reserved for the most spectacular cars and crews; on Sunday he will instead take part in the Memorial Bettega, where he will go head to head with three other drivers of great standing, whose names will be revealed in the coming days.
“Of course, I have watched many videos of Rallylegend over the years, it is such an iconic place to attend, meet all the fans and put on a good show. So it was really great news to find out I will be driving there this year in the Puma Rally1 car. It’ll be a really good final stretch for the car at the show and I’m really looking forward to it.” – Martiņš Sesks, Ford driver
A LANCIA RALLY2 AT RALLYLEGEND FOR THE FIRST TIME
Lancia’s return to the world of rallying is one of the stories that has resonated most with fans in recent years, and Rallylegend 2026 will be a further, important testament to it. After an entire era written with cars that have gone down in legend, from the Fulvia HF to the Stratos, the 037, the Delta S4 and the Delta Integrale, capable of dominating world rallying between the 1970s and the early 1990s, Lancia Corse HF has officially returned to competition with the Ypsilon Rally2, the model chosen to get back in the game in WRC2, with which it recently won the manufacturers’ title in its first year back in the championship, bringing back to special stages around the world a marque that for generations of fans is synonymous with rallying itself.
In San Marino the marque will be present with two official cars. At the wheel of the first will be Nikolay Gryazin, the fast Russian driver competing under a Bulgarian licence, chosen by Lancia for its official return to the World Rally Championship, WRC2 category, with the Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale to be run on this occasion by the F.P.F. Sport team. The second car will instead be driven by Rachele Somaschini,
who returns to competition at the wheel of the Ypsilon Rally2: in 2025 she contested five European rounds of the World Rally Championship in the WRC2 category with the Citroën C3 Rally2; in 2026 she tackled the Dakar Classic in Saudi Arabia at the wheel of a 1988 Mercedes-Benz Unimog 435 4×4 truck, the first all-female Italian crew in the history of the competition.
“Being at Rallylegend with two Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale cars has special meaning for Lancia. Rallylegend is a unique event, able to bring together different generations of fans and to tell Lancia’s extraordinary history in rallying, putting it in dialogue with the present and the future. For us, it is a further important step in Lancia’s journey back to competition. We want to be protagonists at events with a strong connection to our history and to our fans, giving even greater visibility to our project and, above all, sharing with supporters the excitement of seeing Lancia competition cars in action once again. Rallylegend, with its unique atmosphere and the presence of cars and drivers who have written rallying history, is the ideal place to do just that.” – Luca Martello, Lancia Corse HF
GROUP B, FORTY YEARS OF LEGEND
More than twenty Group B cars are already entered for Rallylegend 2026, between those competing and those on display at the Rallylegend Village, marking the fortieth anniversary of the end of the category’s history. Among the protagonists expected on the special stages are some of the greatest interpreters in Group B history, each at the wheel of the car with which they wrote memorable pages: Stig Blomqvist with the Audi Quattro, Timo Salonen and Juha Kankkunen with the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, Miki Biasion and Markku Alén with the Lancia Delta S4.
PAOLO VALLI
Rallylegend Event manager
“Having an official Rally1 car in the race, driven by a driver like Martiņš Sesks, further raises Rallylegend’s sporting level. And we’re not talking about a single crew in isolation: I’m thinking of the quality taking shape for the Memorial Bettega and for Group B, with drivers who made rally history at the wheel of the cars they won with. These are the ingredients that make this edition special from a sporting point of view too.”
VITO PIARULLI
Rallylegend Event manager
“Bringing an official team of Ford’s calibre to Rallylegend is another sign of our event’s international growth. We know how much our fans were waiting for news like this, and we are proud to be able to pair it with the return of Lancia and such a rich Group B line-up for its fortieth anniversary. In the coming days more confirmations and important names will arrive, because Rallylegend keeps opening up to the wider public and to the world of rallying at every level.”
PRESS OFFICE
Leo Todisco Grande
Cell.+39.335.8298326
E-mail leotodisco@rallylegend.com
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Alen Bollini
Cell.+39.338.6601713
E-mail media@rallylegend.com
