World Rally Championship 2000

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The World Rally 2000 Championship was the 28th edition of the World Rally Championship and took place from 20 January to 26 November 2000.

The Iridata series was again supported by the PWRC championship, dedicated to cars derived from the series, and by the FIA Teams Cup, while the FIA 2 liters Cup was abolished, present until the 1999 season.

The driver's championship saw the Finnish Marcus Grönholm triumphant in the final podium Richard Burns and Spanish Carlos Sainz. The title builders was won by the French sculptor Peugeot Esso, to his third gold iridescent after those obtained in 1985 and 1986 with the 205 Turbo 16.

The production car championship, dedicated to the cars of Group N, was won by the Austrian Manfred Stohl who, with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, finished the reign of Gustavo Trelles, known as the Mäkinen of Group N, which dominated the category in the previous four years.

Calendar

The championship, with its fourteen appointments, touched Africa, Europe, South America and Oceania.

Changes in the calendar
The FIA decided to remove the Rally of China from the 2000 calendar, which was replaced by the Cyprus Rally. The Tour de Corse was also moved in autumn.

The premises
Teams of the 2000 season were seven, with the Toyota farewell from the World Championship to devote to Formula 1. Mitsubishi opened the Lancer Evolution VI to Tommi Mäkinen and Freddy Loix; Subaru played the first three games with the 1999 evolution of Impreza WRC with Richard Burns and Juha Kankkunen driving, after which he took the updated WRC2000. Ford opened the Focus WRC completely renewed in 2000 with Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz (later after two years in Toyota) and SEAT went on the field for the 2000 season with Didier Auriol and Toni Gardemeister behind the wheel of the Córdoba WRC Evo2 until the Rally in Finland, when the Spanish house introduced the Evo3 version. Peugeot played his first full World Championship with the 206 WRC (from the Catalonia Rally in race with the 2000 version), entrusting the cars to François Delecour, Gilles Panizzi and Marcus Grönholm, the latter two alternating with the second guide; Skoda again played a split season ahead of 2001 with Armin Schwarz and Luis Climent on the Octavia WRC (from the Cyprus Rally with the Evo version2); Hyundai officially entered the world championship by deploying the new Accent WRC from the Swedish Rally with Kenneth Eriksson and Alister McRae.

Teams and pilots

Changes in the Regulation
A number of changes were made in the sports and technical regulations in 2000.

Sports regulations
The FIA Cup 2 liters were abolished, in force until the previous year.
The use of racing cars was prohibited during the reconnaissance of the Safari Rally, only road cars were used.

Technical Regulation
Increased weight m