2021 Croatia Rally
The 2021 Croatia Rally was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 22 and 25 April 2021. It marked the forty-fifth running of the Croatia Rally, and the first time the event has been run as a round of the World Rally Championship. The event was the third round of the 2021 World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and World Rally Championship-3. It was also the first round of the 2021 Junior World Rally Championship. The 2021 event was based in Zagreb in the City of Zagreb Region and was contested over twenty special stages totalling in competitive distance.
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia won the rally with a 0.6-second advantage over teammate Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, which was the third closest winning margin overall after the 2011 Jordan Rally and the 2007 Rally New Zealand. Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen won the World Rally Championship-2 category, while Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak won the World Rally Championship-3 category. The British crew of Jon Armstrong and Phil Hall was the winner in the junior class.
Background
Championship standings prior to the event
Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen entered the round with a four-point lead over Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe. Reigning World Champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were third, another four points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT held an eleven-point lead over defending manufacturers' champions Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, followed by M-Sport Ford WRT.In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene held a twenty-four-point lead ahead of Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with Adrien Fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul in third. In the teams' championship, Toksport WRT and Movisport co-led the standings, with M-Sport Ford WRT in third.
In the World Rally Championship-3 standings, the crew of Yohan Rossel and Benoît Fulcrand and of Teemu Asunmaa and Marko Salminen both led championships, with Egon Kaur and Silver Simm in third, trailing by five points.